Iggy and the Olympians
by sugarcrazedninja
Summary: Iggy wakes up in a strange camp that he has no memory of how he got there. But after he gets a strange prophecy, a few odd gifts, and new friends, he sets out to find the rest of the flock. Who knew the gods could almost destroy one boys life? R&R please!
1. Chapter 1: A New Location

**Hi! This would be my first Maximum Ride and Percy Jackson crossover, so I hope it's good. It's mainly Iggy centric because he is my favorite, FYI. Oh, and Iggy may seem to be a bit, ah, OOC…other than that, I hope you enjoy!**

**I own nothing!**

With a groan, Iggy propped himself up shakily onto his elbows as he woke up to find himself with his face smashed into the dirt. Spitting out whatever mud or grass was in his mouth, he suddenly realized how weak he actually felt. Just for a moment, he allowed himself to relax ever so slightly, and slowly lowered himself back to the ground. Taking a deep breath, he sat up, crossed his legs and fingered the ground. Green and brown flashed into his head. He wished he could see where he was. But wait! What about the rest of the flock? Cautiously, Iggy got onto his knees and slowly crawled around, his arms outstretched and feeling for a body, anybody that he could know. He felt a feather, but soon realized it was his own. Starting to panic, he started to move a little faster, crawling everywhere in search of his flock.

"M…Max?" he croaked as the fear of being alone sank in. "Fang? Nudge?" He stopped for a moment, taking deep gulps of air before continuing. "Angel! GAZZY?!" he started yelling in a rough, cracking voice. What had happened? Where was everyone? Where was he?!

He froze as he heard something coming…footsteps? No, more like…wheels? A wheel chair, maybe? That was his best guess. Could it have been the Uber Director? Shakily and panicky, Iggy got to his feet and hurried away from where the sounds were coming from, all the while softly calling out the names of his flock members.

"Ho, Boy! Where did you go?" an older gentleman's voice called out from behind him. Little did Iggy realize, but he had just wandered into a forest. Holding his hands out in front of him, he kept himself from running into trees as he quickly eased his way around. He would have flown out, but he could hardly feel his wings, which added to his fear. Ducking behind a tree, he clutched tightly to the bark and listened over his panting breath. _Who was that…?_ He gulped down air like a fish out of water, and slowly sank back to the ground. He felt so tired suddenly, he didn't understand it. His ears perked up.

Soft sounds, like hooves, were traveling his way. The hooves were soft against the cushioning earth, the dirt muffling their sound. Gulping down the last few urgent breaths, Iggy pressed himself tighter to the tree, and wished desperately that he at least had Nudge with him, even though he was constantly complaining about her non-stop talking habits that "made his ears bleed." At least she said calming things when they were freaked out. He held his breath and listened, but the sounds stopped. Sighing with relief, he relaxed and started to feel around the ground again.

His hand came into contact with what felt like a hoof. Jumping in surprise, he started to back away but tripped over a large root.

"Calm down now, son, we aren't going to hurt you," the same old man's voice said from high above him. Iggy yelped slightly as he tripped over another root and fell back and hit his head on a rock, while his arms ended up hooked on the root - since he was still crawling - and pulled back. "Are you alright?" Iggy flinched as a large hand grabbed his arm and pulled him upward.

"Just…peachy!" Iggy snarled, kicking the man in the chest and pushing himself away from the man. He had done that millions of times before with Erasers, why didn't it work with this guy? He still had a firm grip on his arm.

"If you just want me to let go, all you had to do was ask," the hand released him and Iggy stumbled back onto the ground. Groaning slightly, Iggy grabbed the back of his head where he smacked it against the rock. His eyebrows raised up high as red flashed in his mind. Removing his hands from the back of his head and back onto his lap, he heard the older man taking in a low, hissing breath. He felt something wet, warm and sticky on his fingers.

"Are you alright?" he asked again. With another groan, Iggy leaned back.

"I don't feel too good…" he muttered as his stomach went sour. Ever since he had woken up he felt awful.

XxXxXxX

Chiron trotted around Camp Half-Blood, his eyes scanning the entire area looking for a certain Satyr that he needed. Glancing around as campers shouted out greetings to him from the Volley-Ball court, he waved and saw just the Satyr he was looking for walking with one of the newest campers, Percy Jackson.

"Grover!" he called, racing over to the two boys.

"Y-yes?" Grover stumbled, obviously surprised. Percy stared at the centaur for a moment.

"Grover, I'm glad I caught you," Chiron said with a grin and a twinkle in his eye. "I have a job for you," he said.

"Ok, what is it?" Grover asked warily.

"We have a boy in the Big House that could use your assistance. I want you to show him around and help him out as much as you can," Chiron explained. "Come along," he added, turning around and walking back to the large farm house.

"Ok, but why me?" Grover asked as he trotted after him.

"I'll catch you later, Annabeth is giving me another Greek lesson," Percy said, turning the other way and hurrying to their meeting spot. Grover waved goodbye to him and hurried after Chiron.

"I need you to help him because you are very kind and helpful, simple as that."

"Any _other_ reasons?" Grover asked, yet again, warily. Chiron smiled down at him, and as he looked up, frowned.

"There is something odd about the boy. You see, right now he is resting. He was pretty weak when he came here. He has been muttering things in his sleep that we can't exactly make out. But we do believe that his name is Iggy," Chiron explained. Grover furrowed his brow for a moment, and then nodded.

"And is Iggy determined?" he asked curiously.

"We have no idea. We hardly even know who Iggy is as of right now."

"_Bla-ha-ha_," Grover bleated. "Anything else?"

"Well, from what we can tell, he's blind."

XxXxXxX

Iggy woke up, but kept his eyes closed and his ears open, listening to everything around him. He didn't remember falling asleep in a bed or in a warm, soft place anyway. He could hear footsteps outside, and parting his lips ever so slightly he whispered, "Max?" he waited a moment. "Max? Is that you?" he whispered, turning his head slightly.

"Did you hear something?" a shaky male voice said from behind the door. Iggy froze. He didn't know that voice. And he knew every voice of his flock, but he had never heard that voice before. Then, a slight squeaking of wheels rolled down the wooden flooring, possibly a wheel chair…no, he was positive that was a wheelchair.

"That would probably have been him," that voice Iggy recognized, but he thought that all was just a dream. No, he definitely heard that voice before. "He must be awake."

Iggy, for a split second of dumb thinking, he grabbed the fluffy covers he was under, and covered his face. He felt like a damn kid, afraid of the Boogie Man. Of course, as a child growing up in the lab, he never was afraid of the Boogie Man. More like the Boogie Scientist. Anyway, back to the story. Iggy hid himself under the blanket and realized that that was completely useless. But still, he remained under there because of how warm it was. Muttering to himself, he stated what color the blanket was under his breath: a light brown, most likely faux animal fur for extra warmth.

The door opened and his whole body stiffened. The wheel-chaired man made his way in and over to the bed. He felt the strong hand that grabbed him earlier being placed on the side of the bed, tugging the blanket slightly.

"Don't be scared. I already told you before, we won't hurt you," the man said. Wanting to act like a little kid, Iggy would have shaken his head and pulled the blanket tighter to him. But Max didn't raise him like that. He flung the blanket off and finally decided to blink his eyes open. Hoping to fool them, he squinted his eyes slightly as if the light in the room was bright, and then he turned his head to the side to "look" at the man.

"There isn't a light on in here, boy," the man said in a kind voice. Iggy's face flushed and he deeply sighed.

"Well, I guess the cats out of the bag…yeah, I'm blind, big whoop," he grumbled, sitting up and putting his hands in his lap. "Where am I?" he asked, having his sightless eyes rest as he stared blankly in front of him.

"You are at Camp Half-Blood, in the Big House," the man said. Iggy's ears perked.

"Half-Blood? What kind of name is that?" he felt eerily calm while talking to this man, like he had nothing to fear. But Max always told him never to trust anyone he didn't know…

"All will be explained later. How are you feeling?"

Iggy remained silent for a minute. In his head he was running through a checklist that he used to make sure everything was in tact and undamaged. Finally he straightened slightly and said, "Fine. I have a headache, but other than that I'm fine."

"Good. We were beginning to worry, you have been asleep for quiet a while now," the man said. Iggy stiffened. "Probably three days." Iggy's whole body went rigid. He didn't like the sound of that.

"Who are you?" he demanded, turning his head to the man. And from what he could tell, there was another person right behind him; just by the way he was uneasily shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"Me? Right, my name is Chiron," the man said. Before Chiron could say anything else, Iggy interrupted.

"Who's the kid behind you?" Iggy sat up a bit more and tried not to snicker when he heard the kid jump slightly in surprise. "I could hear you," he added, before the kid could ask how he knew he was there.

"O-oh, I'm Grover."

"Hmm…nice to meet you…I'm Iggy…" Iggy said quietly, swinging his legs off the bed and onto the cold wooden flooring.

"Hey, I don't –," Chiron went silent as Iggy got up effortlessly and walked around the room for a bit.

"So how did I get here?" he asked.

"I don't know, we were going to ask you the same question," Chiron said. Iggy nodded with a grimace. He rubbed the back of his neck for a moment, then rolled his shoulders stiffly and mumbled something under his breath.

"What?" Chiron asked.

"Nothing…you don't happen to know where my…family…is, do you?"

**R and R please!**


	2. Chapter 2: Telling of the Flock

**Thank you all for the reviews! It means a lot to me! So, here is the next chapter, it is kinda…uh, weird, I guess. And again, the same warning of Iggy being OOC…oh, and this one you kinda get the idea of what happened to the rest of the flock. Hope you enjoy!**

**I do not own anything! Except the plot line…**

Grover walked in a fast, brisk pace towards cabin 11, with Iggy directly behind him with his fingers tangled into the back of his t-shirt. Grover was, in fact, in a hurry. Mr. D had called for him and he didn't want to be late. He had already apologized to Iggy for not being able to give him an official tour, but promised to do so later. For now, he would just leave Iggy in the kind hands of Luke in Cabin 11.

Luke was already waiting for them at the small porch of the cabin, a big grin spread on his scarred face. He waved at Grover and instantly looked at Iggy with curiosity and sympathy. Grover stopped. Iggy stopped and let go of his shirt.

"Iggy, this is Luke, Luke, this is Iggy," Grover introduced. "I have to go now," he added and quickly hurried to Mr. D.

"Hey, Iggy, nice to meet you." by the sound of it, Luke seemed like a nice guy, but Iggy still didn't think he could trust him.

"Hi," Iggy said, and then promptly tripped up the first step. Luke managed to duck down and partially catch him just enough so that Iggy wouldn't break his nose on the deck. "Thanks…" Iggy mumbled as he got back to his feet.

"No problem," Luke smiled. "C'mon inside, we managed to scrape up a place for you." Iggy gulped. _We_? Iggy didn't like the sound of that, since he wasn't too good with people in general. "Oh, and Chiron found your back pack in the forest…it's in your spot now."

"Okay…" the bird boy froze as he followed Luke inside. It was very warm and stuffy in there, and just a few moments earlier he heard a lot of people inside, now it was dead silent inside and he could feel dozens of eyes locked on him. "Oh this can't be good…" he grumbled, already feeling way too enclosed.

"Everything okay?" Luke asked, turning around to look at him.

"Not at all," Iggy said sarcastically. "Please tell me my spot is near a window or door…or…_something_…" Luke stopped completely and gave him a curious look.

"Sorry, but no. The only spot we could get was in the back corner," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Is that going to be a problem?"

Groaning, Iggy carefully made his way over to him. He stopped just short of running into Luke, stood tall and frowned deeply in that classical way he had. "Not at all, except for the fact that I'm extremely claustrophobic," he stated bluntly, mixing a little anger and unease into his voice for added effect. Luke bit his lip, raising his eyebrows, and looked around the room.

"Oh crap."

- - - - - - - - - -

Iggy dreamed that night. After what seemed like hours of tossing and turning, trying to sleep in that small, stuffy and packed area, trying not to kick people as he moved, he finally fell asleep. And what more, he actually dreamed, which was unusual for him. What _more_, he actually _saw_ what he was dreaming, which he liked. Not that that was unusual for dreams, but he never really saw things for a long time.

Anyway, his dream was him sitting in a tree branch somewhere up in the mountains. Looking around in the brightest blue sky he had ever seen, he saw five bird kids, kids he hasn't "seen" since he was little, and now was actually seeing what they looked like now. Max with her short dyed blond hair with pink streaks; Fang with short, dark hair, dark eyes, and dark clothing, all complete with the dark wings. He saw Nudge with her long black hair with the single blond streak in it, her coffee brown skin tone, her big brown eyes and smiling face. Angel was flying close to Max, her short curly blond hair flapped around in the wind, hitting her round face and getting into her sparkly blue eyes. She was so small; Iggy couldn't help but smile as he watched her struggling to hold onto the little black talking Scotty dog that would soon have wings of his own. He remembered the time he accidentally dropped Total…he blamed it on Gazzy. And there he was, The Gasman was flying in wide arches, his short cut spiked blond hair with dyed black tips, camouflage from head to toe, and the familiar lingering smell he could smell from his branch way away.

Iggy waved happily when he saw Max smiling down at him and Nudge waving energetically. "Come join us, Iggy! The air is great!" Nudge called down to him. Nodding, Iggy stood up, unfolded his wings and was just about to drop out of the tree and push down with his strong wings when the sky darkened. He watched in horror as, one by one, the flock fell to the ground, their wings folding in tightly and their bodies going limp. Rain poured down, racing the bird kids to the ground. Iggy leaped from the branch and became drenched instantly. He ignored the rain and flapped hard, reaching out to catch the closest one – Max – before she hit the ground. Just when he came within touching distance, Max got swept away by a strong gust of wind and was out of sight in no time. Groaning, Iggy flapped harder, reaching out for Nudge this time. The same happened to her as it did to Max. Yelling out in annoyance, Iggy turned on a dime and went for Fang. What Iggy failed to notice with Max and Nudge, but the other bird kids seemed frozen in time, almost glowing gold, and on Fang's face was a look of pure shock and surprise, his eyes almost fully open wide and his mouth slightly open. The tip of Iggy's fingers lightly brushed the hem of Fang's jacket…and he disappeared as well.

"NO!" Iggy yelled, now noticing that his sight was disappearing once more. "NO NO NO!!" He hurried to Angel and saw that Total had actually slipped from her grip, and from what he could tell there were frozen tears in her eyes as she looked like she realized that Total was falling. She became swept away, and Total was gone shortly after her. His last hope was to grab Gazzy and see if he was ok. But as soon as he turned around, he himself was falling in a sea of blackness, no longer able to see anymore. Cursing, he flew around blindly, calling out for his flock.

Nobody answered.

- - - - - - - -

"–ggy!" _who…?_ "IGGY!" _Max?!_ Iggy sat up quickly, reaching out and grabbing the shoulders of the girl calling out to him.

"Max?!" he asked. When he grabbed her shoulders and bright orange flashed in his mind, and just by feeling her shoulders he could tell it wasn't Max. Max had more broad shoulders than this girl. But just out of curiosity he reached up to the top of her head and felt her hair. _Blonde…_

"Max? No, sorry, I'm Annabeth…" she sounded unsure of herself. Iggy let go of her and scowled.

"…dammit…" he grumbled. He had forgotten where he was for a moment, but soon it all came back to him. He cracked his neck and knuckles quickly and stood up, then walked out of Cabin 11, making sure not to step on anybody. He heard the girl called Annabeth chase after him, calling out his name when she was on the porch and he was already halfway through the Cabin lineup. Finally, he stopped and turned around, waiting for her. When he heard her footsteps coming close, he turned and continued walking. His feet never left the ground, using his toes to feel for any obstructions in the pathway.

"How do you know my name?" he asked as he moved onward. Annabeth stepped next to him.

"Ah…uh, Chiron and Grover," she said. "Chiron told me to get you; he needs to talk to you." Iggy stopped for a moment. It took Annabeth a few steps before she realized he stopped, and she turned to look at him. His eyebrows were knit together in concentration.

"What's wrong?" Annabeth asked, raising her eyebrows. Iggy turned his head to the side to look over at the cabin made for Ares' kids. Annabeth looked over to the cabin and saw Clarisse and her siblings snickering at Iggy. Somehow Iggy heard their chuckles that were barely louder than a whisper, and glared in their direction. They were quiet the instant they saw him looking.

"Word travels fast about visitors. Nearly everyone is wondering how you got in the camp," Annabeth said, stepping over quickly and grabbing his wrist. She tugged him further, and he yanked his hand from hers.

"I don't need your help!" he snarled, stepping in front of her and storming in the direction he remembered the Big House being in. Annabeth watched as he walked ahead, and she made a mental note that he was quick tempered and was sure he could do everything himself. She figured that was his way of feeling independent and not dependant on anyone else. She hurried after him, a frown planted firmly on her face.

"You might need help for some stuff," she said, just trying to be helpful. "I'll be happy to…to…uh, lead you around or something, like Grover did yesterday…"

Iggy was silent for a moment, sighed and grinned. "I only grab peoples' shirts if I'm going after their deserts. I only did that yesterday with Grover because when he had my arm I was tripping over things he didn't have to step over when I was off at his side," Iggy explained. He added, "I don't have that hard of a time getting around."

"If you're sure…" Annabeth muttered, glancing back at the Ares Cabin and saw Clarisse watching them, contemplating what type of "initiation" she was going to give Iggy as soon as she got the chance to.

"Who is that, anyway? That kid over there that was laughing?" Iggy asked when Annabeth let out a low sigh. She looked over at him and shrugged, then remembered he was blind.

"Eh, Clarisse…just the biggest bully in the camp," Annabeth said, quickening her pace and walking at his side again. Giving a slight bark of laughter, Iggy gave a quick thoughtful look before giving his usual evil grin at Annabeth's general location.

"Bet I could take her," he said darkly. Annabeth looked surprised. A blind kid… _fight_ the daughter of Ares? He didn't stand a chance.

- - - - - - -

Annabeth stared in disbelief as Iggy blindly stared in her direction with a tense and slightly nervous expression. Chiron, who stood next to him, nodded his head. "Please, Annabeth?" Iggy persisted, although it was entirely unlike him to practically beg someone to do what he asks. He was much more used to forcing people to move or do something. Sighing, Annabeth nodded and headed for the door.

"It's your secret…" she mumbled, sounding like a spoiled brat, as she closed the door behind her. Iggy then turned back to where he Chiron was and his embarrassed expression worsened. He really didn't want to show him, and think of him as a freak.

"Is there enough room in here to show you? How big is it?" Iggy asked, shaking his shoulders slightly. Since he woke up he finally felt his wings again, which made him bewildered, and relieved at the same time.

"I think it will be big enough, it's alright," Chiron said reassuringly, interested in what Iggy wanted to show him.

"You won't tell anyone?" Iggy double checked.

"I won't."

"Alright…" Iggy shook his shoulders harder and unfurled his wings. Unfortunately, he forgot that they gave him that shirt that morning, and there were no slits in the back for his wings, and he didn't expect that shirt to be…a little harder for his wings to get through. Instead of simply ripping, his shirt was lifted up when he raised his wings, the shirt folding up under his arms and hiking them upward as well. "Oh crap," Iggy grumbled, lowering his wings and just taking the shirt off and throwing it to the floor. Finally, his wings spread out and stretched. His feathers ruffled happily and adjusted themselves to lay out smoothly. Chiron didn't say anything.

"Um…" Iggy mumbled uneasily. Chiron looked at the magnificent wings, and after a moment of complete silence, he smiled.

"Those are magnificent wings, you have there," he said admiringly. That took Iggy by surprise. There where only two people he knew that weren't surprised when they first saw his wings, Max's mom and half-sister…but then again there was his brief moment of fame with that gang "the phantoms" in…California, was it? Whatever, that didn't concern him anymore. And that was all thanks to Fang…

"You…aren't surprised?" Iggy asked, lowering his eyebrows suspiciously.

"No, not anymore. This place is full of things you don't see everyday so you get used to these kinds of things. Would you like to know my secret?" Iggy cocked his head to the side, looking curious.

"Are you a hybrid too?" he asked uneasily. Chiron laughed with a shrug.

"You could say that," he smiled. "Do you know what a Centaur is?"

"Uh…no, not in the least." Chiron chuckled.

"Alright, well, a Centaur is half man, half horse," he explained, coming out of his wheelchair. He moved Iggy out of the way, dodged one of the wings that nearly smacked him in the head, and went into a full stretch, revealing his horse body. Iggy carefully held out his hand and put his hand on the horse half's back. His hand recoiled slightly.

"Hybrid, then," he mumbled, reassuring himself. Chiron put his hand on Iggy's shoulder in a fatherly way, and Iggy's shoulders became less tense.

"Now, we just need to figure out how you got here…but first, why not tell me more about this family of yours?" Iggy folded in his wings again and inched around Chiron, heading for a place to sit. "And I have a feeling that our very own spy Annabeth would like to know as well, wouldn't you?" Iggy perked up and scowled. Guiltily, Annabeth walked back into the room, revealing that she was listening the whole time.

"Annabeth!" Iggy said, sounding distressed, groping around for his bright orange shirt. But he knew it was too late, she had already seen his wings and was silent, she wasn't moving and she was holding her breath. Sitting down on the floor, Iggy sighed with a mix of a groan, and let his wings rest on the floor.

"Um…Iggy…" Annabeth stepped closer to him, and he held his hand out to keep her from coming closer.

"Maximum Ride is the oldest…" he said. "She's fourteen, like me and Fang, the leader, and makes sure we're all safe from the white coats."

"Who are the white coats?" Chiron asked.

"Scientists at the School. They're the ones that made us who we are," Iggy said, moving his wings as he talked. "Fang is the second oldest. If you had internet access, you would probably find his blog easily enough…um…then there is me, the only blind one, thanks to the White Coats."

"How did they do that?" Annabeth cut in. With a shrug, Iggy sighed and explained.

"They were trying to enhance our night vision or something like that…" he then continued with, "then there is Nudge. Nudge just…talks way too much. She's eleven, so the fourth oldest…and then the Gasman is eight –"

"_The Gasman_?" Annabeth asked incredulously, trying to suppress a giggle.

"The name means exactly what it's supposed to," Iggy said, smiling. "We call him Gazzy for short and he's my best friend." Annabeth gave a soft smile at the beaming grin on Iggy's face as he thought back to his friends. But soon the smile faded and a frown replaced it.

"Angel…she's Gazzy's little sister, she's six," he said quietly. "She can be pretty scary sometimes."

"How so?" Chiron asked. Iggy grimaced.

"Uh…just, well, different, is all." Iggy really didn't want to go into to many details about his flock and himself so soon. Chiron nodded, and glanced at Annabeth as she stepped around Iggy, grabbed his shirt, and put it in his lap. Iggy blinked, grabbed it and tucked in his wings. He put the shirt back on as he stood up. "I take it –" He pulled his head through the shirt and pulled the rest down his abdomen. "That you want to bring me somewhere?" He lowered his arms and waited.

"Not exactly, it's almost dinner time is all," she shrugged.

"Yes, about that, Annabeth…why don't you go on ahead. I need to have a word with Iggy," Chiron said, giving Iggy a quick glance.

"Oh, alright…" she said, leaving the room. Iggy stared in Chiron's direction, looking a bit confused.

"I just told you about my family, what else do you need to know?" he asked.

"I just want to figure out why you came here, if you aren't a half-blood."

**Um…yeah. Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3: The First Clue

**Warnings: spazziness and OOC-ness…and…uh, I dunno. Lol that's for the reviews for the last chapter! Hope you like this one too!!!!**

**I own nothing!**

**Oh, and a quick note to **Sahra (prounounced like Sara): **RELAX!!! I already have a lot of the story written, and your suggestions came a little too late because I already have some things planned out. You have to read farther to know that. I don't mean to be mean, just so you know, but, seriously, just relax.**

Iggy sat at the end of the crowded Hermes table, picking at his plate, looking depressed. He had gone along with everyone else and put some of his food in the fire, much to his protest since he hardly got enough to eat anyway, and wanted to keep all the food on his plate. Sure, he still had a lot left, but that wasn't why he felt so depressed anyway. He listened to the conversations, nibbling on his food quietly. He had already heard whispers about him; luckily Annabeth kept his wings a secret, so everyone was just whispering about him in general. There were announcements going on without him noticing, and by the time he pushed his plate away he noticed. He heard something about…Capture the Flag.

- - - - - - - -

Iggy wandered around with his new found "friend", Percy Jackson, the next morning. The two seemed to hit it off during the campfire the previous night and Iggy seemed to relatively like Percy's company, along with Annabeth and Grover, that is.

"You seem…depressed," Percy pointed out randomly. Iggy shrugged.

"I miss Max," he said. He had already explained to him about his family. "Guess that's it. I miss traveling with them…" Percy awkwardly patted Iggy's shoulder and looked at the ground.

"Hey!" the two boys stopped and turned around, though Iggy found it useless to do so since he neither recognized the voice, nor could he see who it was. But he did hear Percy give a slight groan of distaste. Footsteps were waltzing their way over, and closely behind the looming person were several more, keeping their distance, but keeping up at the same time.

"Clarisse," Percy grumbled, shifting his weight from one foot to another. Iggy's ears perked, he remembered what Annabeth had told him about her. "What do you want?"

"Not to talk to _you_, that's for sure," she grumbled, looking at him. "I'm here to talk to new guy."

"It's Iggy," Iggy said sourly. "What?"

"You haven't gone through our initiation yet, have you?" Clarisse tilted her head to the side and put her hands on her hips. Iggy straightened and raised his eyebrows, frowning slightly as he thought about what she could mean.

"No…"

"Ah, then come with us!" Clarisse said, reaching out to grab his hand. Iggy, hearing the ground crunch under her as she moved and felt a slight prickle in the air near his hand as she reached out, he pulled away.

"No thanks, I'm not officially part of this camp," he said, turning away to walk to the dock with Percy again.

"Well, if you are here, you are," Clarisse said, grabbing his shoulder firmly. She had to reach pretty high, since Iggy was older and much taller than her. Being six foot something did come in handy once in a while.

Iggy slapped her hand away, and as an added reflex, pushed her away. Then he remembered that she wasn't an Eraser out to get him, and winced when he heard her fall to the ground…hard. She yelled out angrily as she landed in a dirt pile, stood up and stormed back up to Iggy. Now she resembled an angry Eraser…

"You fool!" she said angrily. "You do not want to get me angry!"

"I think it's a little too late for that…" Iggy mumbled, backing away and trying to avoid confrontation. Clarisse, out of anger, shoved him as hard as she could not even considering to go easy on him for being blind. For her, war is war. Iggy stumbled back and fell down, smacking his head on the ground. He heard Clarisse start to run over, but Percy grabbed her arm and pulled her away.

"Let go!" she yelled, grabbing his shirt and throwing him over to Iggy. As Iggy was just sitting up, Percy came crashing down on top of his, knocking the wind out of both of them.

"This has nothing to do with you, Jackson!" Clarisse growled. She stormed over and Iggy pushed Percy off. He got up quickly and just as he heard her footsteps come right to him, he moved to the side and punched her in the small of her back. Angrily, she punched him in the chest and stomach, and as he doubled over, kicked his back and he fell face first into the dirt. Gasping for breath, he sat up again and braced himself for Clarisse's next blow, which never came. Instead, Percy ran over and tackled Clarisse to the ground, and the group was attracting a crowed in no time. Percy and Clarisse were rolling around, punching, kicking, scratching and clawing. Iggy fell back to the ground as his arms gave out on him and just focused on letting the pain pass and getting his breath back.

"Alright, that's enough!" Chiron's voice caught Iggy's attention through the crowd's cheers. "Break it up! That's enough!" Without his knowing, Percy ended up lying on the ground, out of breath and bruised up pretty badly. Clarisse had ignored Chiron and was so into the fight that she ran over and kicked Iggy in the ribs. Iggy rolled over with a grunt of pain, and then yelled out as she stomped on his stomach.

Chiron had grabbed Clarisse and held her back before she could do anymore damage. Annabeth and Grover broke through the crowd. Annabeth ran over to the moaning Iggy and Grover to the groaning Percy.

"Are you ok?" Annabeth asked, looking at him. She turned and looked at Percy, then glared at Clarisse who had, by then, pulled away and was getting a lecture.

"Peachy…" Iggy moaned, sitting up. He had finally caught his breath and had his hand groping around for Annabeth. She grabbed his arm and helped him to his feet. "Ow!" he groaned. Percy got up and moved over to Iggy.

"You ok?" he asked. Blinking, Iggy looked in his direction blankly.

"What do you think?" he grumbled.

"You two should go clean off, you look pretty bad," Chiron said, coming from nowhere. Iggy nodded and let Percy lead him somewhere they could clean off.

"I have to say, I'm surprised." Iggy turned his head slightly towards Percy.

"Oh? 'Bout what?" he asked, lowering his eyebrows with a frown. Percy looked at him.

"Just…that you could fight back a bit," Percy did sound impressed, but he instantly regretted it when he saw the offended look on Iggy's face.

"What? Just because I'm blind means that I can't fight?" Iggy asked. "I can cook, too," he added with a snicker. Percy thought he was joking. "Oh, and fix broken bones…kind of…"

"Can you really cook?" Percy asked incredulously. Iggy nodded, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "How?"

"I don't know, just can." Percy looked impressed. "Hmm…by the sound of your voice, I'd say you got a broken nose from that Clarisse girl?"

"Yeah…" Percy lifted his hand and felt his nose, feeling how it bent and wiped the gooey blood off his face. Iggy stopped for a moment, thinking something over.

"I can fix that," Iggy then said, walking a bit faster to catch up to the still walking Percy. "Come here." Percy obediently stopped and faced him.

Iggy reached out his hand, Percy helped his hand find his nose. Fingering it slightly, Iggy got a firm grip on it and with his other hand smacked it. Yelping as his nose snapped back into place, Percy pushed Iggy's hand off his face and felt the nose himself. After a minute of silence, Percy's surprised and pained look was replaced with wonder.

"How did you…?" Percy looked at Iggy's grinning face and saw him shrug.

"Just know how to do it," he stated. "Where do we go to "clean up"?"

"Over here," Percy grinned, leading him away.

- - - - - - - -

Iggy dreamed again. This time, although it was the same, was worse.

Iggy sat on the tree branch, watching his flock flying. But this time they were flying differently than the last dream. Max was flying in circles high above the others, her wings scrapping the bottom of the clouds. Fang, in all his dark glory, was flying low to the ground, his stomach almost dragging on the grass and dirt. Gazzy was a little higher than Fang, flying counter clockwise while Fang flew clockwise. Angel was way off to the side swooping down over a small pond, then flying high and diving down again in big swoops. Nudge flew a little lower than Max. Iggy watched, his eyes darting from winged kid to winged kid. He kept an eye on the sky, and just when the slightest hints of it growing darker he flew out of the tree, much before Nudge would call out to him.

"Fang!" he yelled. Fang looked up, startled, and as Iggy closed in Fang snapped his wings in and sank down, right through the ground. Iggy slammed into the ground, got to his feet and pushed off, aiming for Gazzy. Even if he didn't call out Gazzy's name, he still caught his attention. Gazzy looked over as Iggy flew towards him, and just simply disappeared. Iggy rushed to Angel. She grinned at him, then frowned as she flew away, disappearing after flapping a few feet to her left. Iggy looked up at Max and Nudge, Max was watching him, hovering in place. His eyes widened as he saw her grin at him, shrug, and fly upwards without a second thought. Like she was just…abandoning them…abandoning _him_.

Nudge was waving at him, and as he came closer, flying half-heartedly, she met him halfway and extended her hand. "Max dropped this, she said it's for you," she said, tossing it to Iggy. And just as Iggy caught it, he glanced back up at the eleven year old and saw that she was gone. He looked down at the feather in his hand, Max's feather, which was bent into an odd shape…like a lightening bolt.

- - - - - - -

"Nudge!" Iggy gasped, sitting upright quickly and found himself in the dark once more. He also found his hand connected to somebody's face.

"Ow…more like punch." Iggy flinched, looking embarrassed when he realized in his wild flail that he punched Luke in the nose.

"Oops, sorry," he grimaced.

"Meh, I've had worse. C'mon, time for breakfast." Iggy, out of trying to be polite, grabbed the hand Luke offered and let him hoist him up. Iggy cracked his neck and sighed, and waited for Luke to say something. "Uh…what's in your hand?" Iggy realized his hand was clamped tightly around something soft and a bit warm. Only then did the colors of it flash in his mind, brown with white speckles. Max's feather. He tightened his grip on it for a moment, then held it out and showed Luke.

"A feather?" Luke tried to grab it but Iggy just wrapped his fingers around it again.

"What…" Iggy paused. "What shape is it?" he unfurled his fingers and showed it to him again. This time he let him grab it. Luke took it gingerly, and looked at it from every angle before handing it back. Iggy snatched it from him.

"Kind of looks like a…uh, a lightening bolt."

Iggy then took the opportunity to run clumsily out of the cabin, ignoring everyone else in pure – for lack of a better word – blind panic. "Chiron!" he called out, his name being the first thing to pop in his head. "CHIRON!" A hand grabbed his arm and pulled him back quickly, and Iggy – being in a slightly panicked state – shoved whoever grabbed him away and just kept running. He could just tell by the size and grip of the hand that it wasn't who he was looking for.

"Iggy!" Annabeth. _Oh crap_, Iggy thought. He stopped, spun around and called out to her.

"Annabeth, its kind of an emergency!" he said bluntly, and then turned around again.

"Hey, where are you –?" Iggy ran passed Grover and he heard him bleat out in surprise as he rushed past.

"Chiron!" Iggy tripped and fell face first in the grass. Annabeth and Grover caught up and helped him to his feet. Groaning, Iggy thanked them.

"What's going on, Iggy?"

"Where's Chiron?" Iggy insisted.

"What's wrong?" Annabeth pestered. Reluctantly, Iggy held out his hand with the feather and showed it, but refused to let them touch it.

"A feather?" Grover asked, looking at his hand and sniffing the air slightly. Annabeth didn't say anything, keeping her lips pursed tightly in her attempt not to ruin Iggy's secret. "Huh, it looks like a lightening bolt!" Annabeth looked over, fascination spreading over her face. She looked up at Iggy's face and noticed how pale it was.

"Where did you get that, Iggy?" Annabeth asked quietly. Iggy swallowed dryly, took a deep breath and said:

"From…Max…" Annabeth's eyes widened. "In my dream…Nudge gave me it in my dream; she said it was from Max."

**Heh…uh, review please! oh, and a note to all other…uh…crazed reviewers, I already have about 31 pages written, and I have a good start, so I'm good on the suggestions. If I need inspiration, I will in fact let you know. So please, just relax…**


	4. Chapter 4: Capture the Flag

**Woo! Update time! I feel good! I am glad to be getting all these great reviews, and I love you all for it! Free hugs for everyone!! SOOOO yeah. I saw Percy Jackson the movie, like, twice this weekend; I love it for something that didn't follow the book at all. **

**With this chapter, I bring you………………………CAPTURE THE FLAG! YAY!**

**Warnings: OOC-ness and the usual stuff. Hope it turned out good, and now, read!**

Iggy was mad. Steaming mad; and he was thinking about how lucky everyone was that he didn't have any bombs in his pockets as he sat up high in a tree branch without anyone knowing. Not even Chiron, who he was the maddest at. He gave him no reasonable explanation on why he had Max's feather after receiving it in a dream, and what it meant and, well, _everything_! Oh Iggy just ran away when Chiron didn't know how to explain everything and he had been sitting up in the tree all day, listening to the comings and goings of every camper in the camp, even those Satyrs and Nymphs that lived in the forest. Several Nymphs that knew he was blind tried to convince him to come down, but obviously failed.

Late in the day, Iggy had heard campers cheering about something, and letting his curious side get the better of him, he stuck Max's feather in his back pocket and clambered down. Following the noise, he made it to the group he heard Percy, Luke and Annabeth in.

"Ah, come to join us?" Annabeth asked when he stumbled over, bumping into people accidentally.

"Yeah…what's going on?" he asked, shifting his head around once and a while, catching snippets of conversations, half of them about himself. How he had disappeared most of the day after his weird "morning jog" as some people put it jokingly, wondering where he had gone, things like that.

"Capture the Flag," Annabeth said with a wide grin. Iggy blinked.

- - - - - - - - - -

Again, being annoyed and angry did not exactly suit Iggy if he didn't have a bomb in hand, or an Eraser to pulverize. He just sat at the base of a tree near a stream where Percy was keeping watch. Nobody knew what to do with Iggy, so they just stuck him with Percy. Iggy had Max's feather in his hands as he sat in silence, missing listening to Max taking the lead, Fang's silence – funnily enough it was very different from the usual silence – Angel and Total talking to each other, Gazzy helping him scribble down ideas for a new bomb, and Nudge just talking away.

"Hey, Iggy, you ok? You're so quiet," Percy spoke up, catching his attention.

"Just thinking…" Iggy shrugged. "Miss the others."

"Well, of course you would." Percy turned to look at him and saw him fingering the feather again. "What is that even from?"

"A dream. Max…" Iggy shrugged again. "Someone's coming," he added, hearing footsteps and screams on their way over, as well as the clanking of armor. Iggy had some on as well; Annabeth and Luke made him put it on in case he got in trouble…though all he had on was a chest plate and some shin guards, they didn't expect him to get into any trouble. Getting up, Iggy wandered over to Percy and heard him groan in annoyance.

"Its Clarisse," he informed, and Iggy nodded with a frown.

"Ambush?" he asked.

"Attempted, yes," Percy nodded. Silence.

"Alright then." By that time Clarisse and her cabin mates/siblings had hurried over and Clarisse brandishing a strange looking spear. Percy pulled out the sword he had borrowed, and Iggy tossed his shield to the side. He didn't care; they didn't think he could fight. He would show them.

"You and me have a score to settle, Jackson!" Clarisse said angrily, pointing the tip of the barb-wired spear in his face.

"Don't you think we might have already settled that?" Percy asked, whacking the spear away with his sword. Iggy took note of the sounds, there was a slight buzz as the metal sword hit the spear, and Percy let out a soft hiss. By his guess, he would say that the spear was either mechanical, or electrified. His guess was the second.

"I think us two have a score to settle, too," Iggy said tauntingly. "Or are you afraid to hit the blind one again?" Iggy really did need to blow off some steam. Fighting Clarisse just might be as good as fighting off Ari…well, back when he was alive, that is. A loud "whoosh!" sounded as she swung the spear his way, he ducked and she missed. She swung again, lower this time, and he jumped. Clarisse got frustrated, and as she swung once more – Iggy flipping backwards – Percy swung at her with his sword. He managed to ding her armor, but didn't cause any significant damage.

Clarisse jabbed at Percy then, and hit him in the chest plate. Yelling out loud, he fell back into the stream. Iggy took his opportunity and swung a kick at her. He kicked her in the ribs, sending her flying. She got up, holding back some of her siblings, and rushed Iggy. She swung, and Iggy was just a bit too late to realize what was going on. Luckily Percy was there. He jumped over and rammed into Clarisse, just as Iggy spun to the right, dodging most of her swing. The tip of her spear grazed his back, cutting his shirt open and giving his wings a good shock. Falling to the ground, and quickly rolling to his back, Iggy gasped in pain. Percy and Clarisse were into a full-blown war by the time Iggy shakily got back onto his feet. At that time he didn't even bother concerning himself with the fact that the cut in his shirt was allowing his feathers to poke out, or the fact that his wings were tingling uncomfortably, and seeming to get worse with each stumbling step.

Iggy charged into Clarisse, her spear bouncing off his chest plate as he tackled her to the ground and pinned her there, his face contorted in pain as a shock wave flooded through him.

"Iggy!" Percy yelled, but the blind boy just ignored him. Clarisse flipped Iggy off her, got a better hold on her spear, and jabbed him with it again, sticking it almost right through his chest plate. Letting out a anguished cry of pain, Iggy curled up, grabbing at his chest plate and tried to pry it off him, not even thinking of untying it. He was just concerned about getting it off. Clarisse, smirking, got up and turned to Percy, and received his sword's butt to the nose. She roared angrily, smacking his sword away with her spear and going for a swing to his head. Angrily, Percy smacked the spear away with all his might and watched as it broke in two. Triumphantly he grinned as he smacked her head with the side of his sword, hard enough to knock her to the ground. Before anyone could respond, a few feet away Luke ran across the field and over to their side with a red flag with a boars head patterned on it, winning them the game. Everyone on their team came out of the woods, cheering and running over to Luke, very few of them noticing Iggy's groaning form on the ground, all save Percy and Annabeth, who rushed over as soon as they were in the clear. Clarisse and the others around her staggered after Luke angrily, grumbling something about a set-up.

"Iggy! Are you ok?" Annabeth asked, shaking his shoulder.

"Never better…" he groaned, letting her help him sit up. "Ow! Watch it!" he yelped as she put her hand on his back. If he could see, he would be alarmed by both the younger kids' surprised looks, as well as the other campers from the Ares cabin. Annabeth moved her hand slightly and he hissed angrily. "That hurts, stop!" after yelling that Iggy froze, realizing what must have happened and why they were all silent. Iggy quickly grabbed Annabeth's arm, pulled her hand away from his back and over to his front. He put his hand on hers and saw dark red flash in his mind as he felt the gooey, sticky warm liquid on her fingers.

"Oh damn!" he shouted and swung his arm back and had felt his fingers wrap around the slice in his shirt. Groaning, he stuck his hands inside the shirt and felt his bloody feathers, and then the somewhat deep cut underneath.

"We should get you to the Big House, right now!" Percy said, sounding urgent and alarmed, his eyes locked on the feathers.

Suddenly, a growl erupted, and then a howl came from the forest and everybody froze, even the campers who had gathered around to see what was up with Iggy ignored him and stared into the forest. As soon as they heard…whatever it was, Chiron had hurried over, shouting out in ancient Greek. Annabeth drew her sword, and Iggy tensed. He had no idea what was going on, as per usual.

On the rocks just above everyone was a black hound the size of a rhino with lava red eyes and teeth like daggers, looking straight at Percy. Nobody moved. Nobody spoke…

Except for Annabeth. "Percy, run!" she yelled. Iggy got up; knowing something bad was going to happen. And as Iggy moved the creature turned to him and snarled, baring its teeth. Annabeth, who moved over to Percy, discovered that the monster was too fast and leaped over her. Before _anyone_ knew it, Iggy had snapped out his wings, which in turn ripped up his shirt pretty well, and flew in between the two and got the monster's teach digging right into his shoulder, luckily just there. Iggy came down to a crash landing, holding in a scream of pain as his shoulder spewed blood.

The monster ignored Iggy and went right for Percy again, after the quick detour that is. The monster pounced as Percy's footing slipped. The razor sharp claws dig through his armor. There was a cascade of thwacking sounds, and out of the monster's neck came dozens of arrows. And with that, it died.

Iggy was struggling to get up, his face pale and blood oozed out of his new wounds the more he tried to move. A puddle formed underneath him, and Luke was the first to notice. He ran over and pushed him back to the ground, telling him to lie still a moment while someone worked on giving him a quick make-up bandage. He had called over someone from the Apollo cabin to do such.

"Um…what the…" Iggy's wings twitched when he realized that what they were talking about. He had blew his cover, and if Max were there she would have gotten him away so fast that he wouldn't have time to even think about apologizing.

"_Di immortales_!" Annabeth's voice reached Iggy, and he turned his head in her direction, ignoring everyone else around him. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't…they're not supposed to…"

"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp." Iggy felt Luke's grip on his good shoulder tighten and then Iggy heard Clarisse yell something.

"It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"

Iggy's blank expression suddenly came to life and filled with anger. He tried to get up, managed to get halfway to his feet when Luke pushed him down again. "You need to _sit still_!" he hissed at him, pinning him to the ground. "You lost a lot of blood!"

"Please, I've had worse," Iggy said, glaring at him. He pushed Luke off and staggered to his feet. The boy from the Apollo cabin had already finished up the make shift bandage and was just starting to look at his wings when he stood. Shakily walking over, Iggy let his wings trail down and he pushed his way through the crowed of campers. He stopped when he felt Annabeth's gentle hand place itself on his chest, holding him back. It was only then that he noticed everyone was quiet.

"What's going on…?" Iggy asked, hoping that nobody was staring at his wings. Annabeth swallowed dryly.

"This is _really_ not good," she said in a low voice.

"It is determined," Chiron announced from somewhere behind him. Annabeth had grabbed onto the part of Iggy's shirt that was still on and pulled him to the ground into a kneel. Groaning as his shoulder protested, he followed her lead anyway, realizing that everyone else must be doing the same.

"My father?" Percy asked in a bewildered voice. Iggy blinked, confusion etching his face. Annabeth just kept her hand on top of his, remaining silent.

"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."

Iggy was just glad they weren't paying any attention to his wings.

**Review….NOW!**


	5. Chapter 5: Iggy's Quest

**O.o it's been a while since I updated!! So here you go!**

**I do not own**

**General OOC-ness. You know the gist…**

"Nudge!!" Iggy yelled as he looked around his dream. Max was gone; she hadn't been in the dream at all. He looked for Nudge first since she was the only one who could seem to make contact with him. Nudge wasn't anywhere to be found, either. Where Max had been flying were miniature lightening bolts. Iggy looked around and saw Fang look up at him, shrug and simply dive into the ground, traveling right through the grass. Where he had sunk in appeared a charred…picture, something that looked like a scepter, but whatever it was it was burned into the ground. Iggy, getting to his feet and standing on the branch, watched Gazzy fly around, his sparkling big blue eyes watching Iggy as Iggy watched him. After a moment, Gazzy smiled.

"Iggy, how long could you see?!" he called over, making a large swoop in the air, getting closer to him. "We miss you, why won't you fly with us?" he asked, glancing over at Angel, who was waving to him from the pond she was hovering above.

"The others are gone, too. Why don't you follow them?" Iggy asked, feeling bad about leaving the little ones out there in the open by themselves.

"They aren't gone! Why don't you come with us for once?" Gazzy asked, looking sad. Iggy almost felt his heart breaking. Uneasily, he sat back down on the branch and let out a loud sigh.

"I got hurt today, I shouldn't be flying!" he called over. Gazzy swooped closer. "See?" Iggy said, pointing to his bandaged shoulder. Gazzy frowned.

"Well…pray, then. They'll help you! They've helped us!" Gazzy called, flying farther and farther away. "Come on, Iggy! We miss you!" Gazzy was getting too far away. Panicking, Iggy jumped from the tree and raced after him, not noticing that the pain in his shoulder he had fallen asleep to was gone. Iggy chased after him, but Gazzy was gone, and so was Angel, and before Iggy could fly any farther or faster, a large hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back.

**"You cannot follow them!" **

- - - - -

Iggy woke up with tears in his eyes. His shoulder was numb, but it didn't hurt anymore, same with his back. The cabin was quiet, by his guess everyone was still asleep. Sighing, Iggy rubbed the tears off his cheek with the back of his hand and sat up slowly, keeping weight off his shoulder.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Iggy nearly jumped out of his feathers when Luke's voice sounded off next to him in a low whisper.

"Oh God!" Iggy gasped. "What the heck are you doing here?" he asked, his heart beat slowing down as his nerves calmed.

"I've been sleeping a few feet away for a while now, but…you were sorta crying in your sleep, so I came over to see if you were ok." Iggy blinked, and put his face in his hands for a moment, then dragged his fingers through his strawberry blond hair and looked in Luke's direction.

"You ok?" Luke asked, adjusting his position. Frowning, Iggy shrugged and turned away slightly.

"Just some weird dreams."

"Oh? What about?" Luke asked curiously. Iggy ran his fingers through his hair once more, looking like he'd rather not discus his dreams. "If you'd rather not –"

"My family keeps disappearing," Iggy said quietly. "They disappear; one more is gone with each dream and in there place is a weird symbol kind of thing…"

"What kind of symbols?" Luke interrupted. Blinking, Iggy thought back.

"Well…Nudge, she had this…owl…in her place this time. Max, well, you saw that feather, right?" Iggy asked, sitting up slightly and pulling the feather out of his pocket. He held it out for Luke, who took it and examined it for a moment before handing it back.

"Yeah."

"There was just…lightening this time, she was gone and lightening was in her place." Luke looked away, an interested – yet worried look spread on his scarred face.

"I try to go after them, you know, when they get away from me…but someone held me back this time." Luke looked back at Iggy, his eyebrows raised and curiosity blasting through his eyes.

- - - - - - -

Not many people really talked to Percy much anymore, even Annabeth seemed to be avoiding him. Iggy didn't care though, and since he really didn't understand much about Greek mythology he still talked to him. The two of them were sitting on the dock, waiting for Grover to come and join them, Percy staring intently into the water and Iggy just laying back and letting the sun warm him. It had been quiet for a while; neither of them really knew what to talk about. Iggy sat up quickly, startling Percy slightly, and went to yank his shoes off. Once his checkered high-tops were off, he set them off to the side and lay back again, sticking his feet in the water.

"Yow! It's cold!" he yelled, pulling his feet back onto the dock. Percy laughed a bit, shaking his head. Iggy pulled his shoes back on and rubbed his sore shoulder gently as his muscle twitched under the fresh bandage. It suddenly got into an awkward silence for a while.

"Um…" Iggy turned his head to the side, tucking his hands under his head as he lay down once more, acknowledging Percy as he mumbled. Percy was staring at him as intently as he did when he was looking at the water. "Those wings…"

"Yes, they're real," Iggy smirked, shaking his shoulders slightly and then hissing as his shoulder stung.

"Does your whole family have them?" Percy asked.

"Yup."

"Um…uh…" Percy had a question ready, but he just didn't know how to word it. Iggy sat up again, turned and crossed his legs so he was sitting with his front facing the water. "Why…why do you hide them?"

"Cuz if they are _out_…well, my wings would attract attention…and then I'm a freak."

"I think they're cool," Percy said with a shrug. "Flying all the time…sounds like fun."

"Not when there are psychos out to get you," Iggy pointed out matter-of-factly. Percy looked at him wildly. Iggy, sensing him look, smirked again and sighed. "It's a long story…but yeah, sometimes having wings comes in handy." Nodding slowly, Percy looked back at the water. "Though, of course, sometimes I wish I was normal."

"I'm sure…" Percy said in a low voice. It became quiet again.

- - - - - -

The long days between the Capture the Flag game, Iggy revealing his wings, Percy becoming the son of Poseidon, and that point in time where Iggy sat alone in a tree once more had felt like forever. As each day passed, Iggy grew more and more depressed, desperately missing his flock as the dreams became worse and worse. But it didn't stop him from doing his favorite pass-time: listening in on other people's conversations.

Just a few feet away from the tree he was hiding in was Percy, Grover and Chiron, talking about some type of prophecy, or something along those lines. He had taken a great interest in what they were saying, and as soon as Chiron said, "Go pack your bags," Iggy nearly fell off the branch he was sitting in. They were _leaving_! Why couldn't he leave? Iggy unfurled his wings stiffly, which had been folded up tightly for hours, and stuck them through the two new slits on the back of his replacement shirt the Hermes cabin had stolen for him. He glided down easily, once he was sure the others had gone. Touching down, he shook his shoulders and let his wings stretch, and folded them in nicely yet again. Easily making his way to the cabin, he stopped and thought for a moment. _Wait…this is too simple…I thought we weren't allowed to leave…_

"Iggy!" Iggy stiffened, and spun around to face the voice. He recognized the voice, but just couldn't place the name…all he knew was that the boy calling out to him was from the Hephaestus cabin, the oldest one in the cabin. Iggy put his hands in his jean pockets and waited for him to walk over.

"Yeah?"

"I was just wondering something…"

"Yeah?" Iggy asked again, trying not to sound rude. "Tell you what, I answer your question, you can answer mine."

"Fine by me. Oh, my name is Charles Beckendorf, by the way."

"Alright, cool. What's up?" Iggy asked, cocking his head slightly.

"Well, since you haven't been claimed by anyone so far, I just wanted to see what you were good at. Like, what can you do best?"

"Uh, honestly…" Iggy rubbed the back of his neck nervously. He grimaced, and continued with, "I'm good at stealing desserts, does that count? Oh, and I can make bombs…" his voice trailed off and his face felt hot. He didn't exactly know why, but that didn't concern him at the moment. "Oh, and I can cook, too." Beckendorf blinked, clearly surprised.

"You can make…_bombs_?" he asked.

"Heh…yeah. You'd be surprised by what a blind guy can do," Iggy chuckled. "Its actually easy, and I can make a lot if I have some help."

"Interesting…so, you're kind of a pyro, then, eh?" Beckendorf asked.

"Uh, sure," Iggy said with a shrug.

"Sounds like Hephaestus to me."

"Huh?"

"The god of fire and forge."

"Oh. Now my turn to ask a question," Iggy said. "How do I get out of here?" Beckendorf looked surprised. Blinking, he thought about what he might have meant. "I just need to get away from here, find my family, you know, stuff like that."

"Um…you can't leave unless you have a quest." Iggy tilted his head downwards for a moment, looking disappointed…and then looked up quickly, his face bright with an idea.

"Can you help me with something?" he asked eagerly.

- - - - - - -

Percy, Annabeth and Grover just finished waving goodbye to the other campers and were just reaching the top of Half-Blood Hill, next to Thalia's tree, when Iggy came swooping down out of nowhere, surprising the three, but somehow Chiron already had the feeling that Iggy would have shown up. In Iggy's hand was a long white stick that Percy recognized as the poles that blind people used to avoid obstacles. There was also a stuffed backpack strapped down in between his shoulder blade, where it wouldn't get in the way of his wings. He wasn't smiling though, and he stared right in the direction of Chiron.

"Iggy, what are you doing?" Annabeth asked, looking stunned. He turned his head to "look" at her, blinked, and turned away again.

"I'm leaving. I can't stay here anymore. I need to find my family," Iggy was dead serious as he stared blankly in Chiron's direction. He jabbed the pole into the ground and let go, allowing it to stand on its own.

"I'm afraid you can't leave here, Iggy, without a quest," Chiron said firmly. Iggy's eyebrows knit together and he frowned deeply.

"I don't care. I'm not part of this camp, so I'm leaving," he said, and pulled his pole out of the ground and absentmindedly swung it around as he tried to sidestep them and get out, but Chiron grabbed his arm as soon as he lifted his foot.

"You are part of this camp, Iggy. You can't leave without a quest. No quest, you have to wait until the end of summer." Iggy pulled his hand away.

"I can't wait that long!" he said loudly. "For all I know, they could be dead right now! I have to go after them!" He tried to get away from Chiron, but Grover grabbed him instead. Iggy attempted to push him away but Grover had too good of a grip. "Let me go!" he yelled. Percy and Annabeth moved over to help Grover.

"IGGY!" Chiron yelled, and everyone went quiet and still, looking in his direction. Iggy had his fist raised, looking like he was about to punch Grover in the face. Chiron wheeled over to Iggy, grabbed his arm firmly and pulled him away from the others.

"Let me go," Iggy said angrily. "I'm leaving, you can't stop me."

"Iggy, listen to me!" Chiron said forcefully. Iggy blinked, arched his eyebrows and stood still. "Its dangerous out there, that's why we aren't letting you go-"

"What? You think I can't survive out there on my own?" Iggy looked offended. "I have been out there for years! I have fought for years! I can do anything!" He stood tall, and for a moment a slight flash of determination and pride flashed on his pale face. Chiron's grip on his arm changed…loosened a bit.

"You didn't let me finish," he said. Iggy turned towards him, surprised. "We aren't letting you go without a prophecy, and you tell it to us so we know what's going to happen." The corners of Iggy's mouth twitched upwards into a slight smile, and then he blinked and frowned again.

"Prophecy?"

- - - - - -

Iggy made his way through the attic of the Big House slowly and carefully. Chiron had explained how there was a lot of "trophy items" in there that shouldn't be bumped into, knocked over, or anything that could disturb the stillness of the room. He followed the instructions, he made it to the back of the attic and just stopped, waiting to hear…well, _anything_. Then he heard it: a slight rustling and then a rasping voice that echoed in his head, saying _I am the spirit Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask_. Iggy, swallowing dryly, balled his hands into fists and took in a breath.

"What do I have to do?" he asked. "What do I have to do to find and help my flock?" Iggy stiffened, hearing something slither around the floor, and if he could see he would have seen tendrils of green mist swirl around, becoming more thick and taking form of five bodies; once they became clearer they revealed themselves to be the forms of Max, Fang, Nudge, the Gasman, and finally Angel, holding onto Total the small Scottie dog. But Iggy saw none of it, and just listened stiffly as the Oracle spoke inside his head.

_Travel across the land and friends you will find_ Max spoke in the Oracle's voice.

_Remember them and to you they will bind_ Fang said in the same voice. Iggy blinked, committing it to memory

_When all together will the family return_ Nudge stared at Iggy intently as she spoke. Finally, Gazzy and Angel spoke together.

_But if it's the end this does not confirm_ the siblings said. The five of them disappeared and returned back into the mummified hippy lady.

Iggy neither understood it, nor liked the sound of it. The voice still echoed in his head and ran the blood in his veins cold. He stumbled backwards a bit, turned and made his way back in a quick pace.

**And now we're on our way! Please review!**


	6. Chapter 6: The First Gift and Fight

**Here we go, a long overdo chapter, just for you! I think this may be the longest yet…so here goes nothing!**

**Oh, and one more thing that's been bugging me: all of you who have given reviews that say that this story really needs some Flock action let me just say that this story is all about Iggy FINDING the flock! They aren't just going to show up, so relax and wait!!!**

**Now enjoy!**

Iggy woke up in a cold sweat the next day, the day they finally granted him permission to leave. That dream had been the worst he had yet, and he could still hear Angel screaming for him.

_No, no! Don't let us be, Iggy!_ Angel had been tossing around in the sky by an invisible source. He had no idea what was going on, but Angel was terrified. _Please! Help us Iggy! They are using us, fighting over us!_

Iggy had woken up when he was standing alone in the middle of that field, once more. He looked up when a large hand had clasped down on his shoulder and saw…he didn't know _who_ that was. Some very tall man, a bit scary looking, looked like he had been working in a…a forge or _something_ along those lines. He didn't look too good, either, but when he locked eyes with Iggy, he was frowning deeply, but there was a slight twinkle in his dark eyes.

Now he sat up in his spot, gasping for breath, trying to calm his nerves, and stared into the darkness yet again. He would admit that he hated those dreams, hated seeing his family taken away from him, some willingly; he would admit that he hated waking up and finding that he wasn't able to see anymore; he would admit that he no longer wanted to sleep because he didn't want to have those dreams anymore. But he would _not_ admit that he didn't like to be able to see what they looked like, after so long.

"Iggy…" Iggy flinched as Luke spoke up. "Iggy, today you go away on your quest, you should get ready." He felt his pole being placed on his lap and his backpack pushed into his arms. Iggy's jaw clenched, and he nodded.

"Thanks…" he said groggily, standing up.

"Good luck," Luke grinned. Iggy nodded and headed outside. Chiron had told him to meet him up at the top of Half-Blood Hill early morning, so he headed there right away. The camp was quiet, most campers were still asleep. Iggy twirled his pole around absentmindedly as he trudged up the hill. As he came to the top, he found Thalia's tree and sat down, resting against the trunk. Chiron wasn't up yet, obviously, or else he would have said something. Iggy was alone up there, or so he thought.

"Do you know the story of this tree, boy?" Iggy jumped to his feet, nearly scared out of his mind. A big hand clasped down on his shoulder, steadying him so he would roll down the hill. Iggy recognized the hand from his dreams.

"Wh…what?" he asked, swallowing dryly.

"This tree. Do you know the story of it?" the man asked, letting Iggy go.

"Yeah, Annabeth told me," Iggy mumbled. "A girl named Thalia, right? She died here to protect her friends."

"Very good." Iggy grimaced. He didn't like being talked to as if he were a poor innocent child. He wasn't innocent! "Here, I just dropped by to give you this gift." The man grabbed Iggy's hand, forced open his fingers and placed something in his hands.

"What…?"

"See for yourself, but I have to be going now," the man said.

"Wait! Who are you, anyway?" Iggy asked, stopping him before he could leave. The man turned back to him.

"That's right; you don't know much about us, do you?" Iggy frowned, not liking the way he was talking to him. "Just know that my name is Hephaestus. I already know your name." Iggy blinked, looking surprised. Next thing he knew, he was alone again.

He loosened his grip on the thing in his hands; he used his sensitive touch as he fingered the object. Iggy frowned, his eyebrows twitched and he narrowed his unseeing eyes.

"Is this supposed to be a joke?!" he grumbled, holding the glasses loosely in his hand. "That Hephaestus no sense of irony!"

"What did you say, Iggy?" Chiron's voice said. He was coming up the hill; he was probably half way by then.

"This guy called Hephaestus gave me _glasses_! Of all the things he could have given me, it was glasses."

"You mustn't say such things about gifts from gods, Iggy," Chiron said. Iggy raised his eyebrows and then fingered the glasses again.

"Why glasses?" he asked as Chiron wheeled up next to him. Chiron looked at the glasses for a moment.

"I don't know," Chiron said with a slightly sigh. "But don't question a gift from a god…he must have been in a hurry…" he said, looking around the surrounding area. "Try them on; they must be able to do something."

Uneasily, Iggy fumbled with his fingers to grab onto the bow of the glasses, and lifted them to his face. He tucked them on behind his ears and blinked a few times. Surprised, he fell backwards with his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide. As he landed he finally gave out a semi-loud shout. Chiron jumped slightly at his sudden outburst. After a moment of pure surprise, a smile broke out on Iggy's face and his eyes darted from place to place, _looking_ at everything he could.

"Iggy…?" Iggy turned to him and his smile widened. "I take it it's a good gift?" Chiron chuckled, looking at the excited fourteen year old bird boy.

"YEAH!" he said happily. "I can SEE!!"

- - - - - - -

Iggy had gone a good distance by the afternoon the same day he had left camp Half-Blood. The road he was following was long, and he didn't even know why he was following it. He just had an odd feeling that if he followed it, he would eventually find _someone_ that he knew. He adjusted his glasses quickly as they started to slip down the bridge of his nose again. He made a mental note that the next time he found some tape or- if worse comes to worse- glue he would immediately stick the glasses to his face. He looked down at the road, holding the frames to his face, and his blue eyes widened. There were signs of an explosion on the grass, tire tracks swerving off the road and in the grass, and the lingering smell of something burning. Iggy knew that smell anywhere. He swooped down and came to a quick, graceful landing a few feet away.

There was definitely the lingering smell of an explosion hanging in the air. Looking around, he saw no other evidence of what it might have been, and his quick and fleeting hopes that it was his little buddy Gazzy had diminished. But he felt something; that odd feeling that was leading him down that road earlier was tugging him off the road and into the woods. He didn't know why, but he followed it. After doing a quick 360, he whipped out his wings and leaped into the air, letting his wings catch an updraft and he headed upwards. Above the trees he was able to get a good aerial look of the trees.

- - - - - - - -

"Dear me, boy!" Iggy looked up quickly from the small Scotty dog statue he was staring at uneasily. There was a woman standing in the doorway of the building with the neon sign that read "Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium". Sheepishly, Iggy rubbed the back of his neck and looked away quickly.

"Sorry, I was just looking…" he said. He then pointed to the statue. "Is this…erm…relatively new?" The concealed woman stepped over carefully and looked at it.

"Oh, not at all. It is relatively old." Iggy let out a soft shudder; he couldn't believe that that could possibly be Total. He didn't understand why he even _thought_ that. "What brings you here?"

"Smelled food," Iggy shrugged without thinking. And as if on cue, his stomach growled loudly and he was somewhat tempted to growl back. He was tired, it was late, and he was hungry. It had been a surprisingly long day. "And…I'm waiting for my…uh…ringmaster…to meet up with me."

"Ringmaster?" Iggy cursed his random thinking. Why on earth did he think of a circus at that time?!

"Yeah, I got separated from my circus. I'm a…fire dancer," Iggy tossed out at random. "My ringmaster said to, uh…meet me at that gas station if I got lost while we passed through town."

"Dear me…are you hungry?" the woman asked in such a kind voice. Iggy lowered his defensive instincts for just a moment, seeing that the woman was kind and generous, but that didn't mean he let them down completely. "Come inside, I'll get you some burgers." Iggy's mouth began to water at the thought of food. He had gone the whole day without eating and was plenty mad at himself for not stopping to buy something to eat earlier.

He had followed the woman, Aunty Em, to a room in the back of the warehouse that had a fast-food counter, soda dispenser, and the works. It smelled wonderful in the room. _Oh I want my room to smell like this…_Iggy thought longingly. _If I had a room, that is…_

"Please sit." Iggy looked over at her, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose once more. He nodded, and took a seat. He was glad to sit down for a while. After flying over the trees, following the weird feeling that was pulling him along, he had realized that he wouldn't be able to see what he was following up in the air, where the trees blocked his view. So he had landed and walked for quite a long time.

Before he knew it there were several burgers in front of him, along with two shakes and XXL fries. He blinked, and before letting his watery mouth sink into that good looking burger, he looked up at Aunty Em nervously. She was watching him, smiling.

"Why this much…?" he asked, his fingers twitching, longing to grab some fries. His stomach was yelling at him.

"You just look very hungry. If you don't eat it all, that's fine." She took the seat across from him. Nodding slowly, Iggy reached over and grabbed the burger, trying not to seem like a pig. But that plan blew up when he actually started eating. Aunty Em was watching him with what could only seem to be delight as he enjoyed her food. He was done within ten minutes, eating everything that was placed before him. He leaned back, a content look on his face.

"Was it good?"

"Great!" Iggy sighed happily, suddenly feeling sleepy. But that wasn't a big concern for him, he had a long day.

"That's good…" Iggy looked at her. "You know, I really do enjoy the look of your glasses. May I see them a bit closer?" Iggy lifted a hand slowly to his glasses and fingered them. Frowning, he shook his head.

"No? Why ever not?"

"I'm blind without them," he said way too honestly.

"Oh that is too bad," Aunty Em said as she stood up. Iggy tensed, but she simply stood up, brushed the wrinkles out of her dress, and moved to collect his dishes. "You look tired."

"Long day," Iggy said, uneasily now. He was much more tired than before. Aunty Em smiled softly and he relaxed a bit. "Would you mind if I wait here a bit?"

"Go ahead," she said from the counter, looking up from the dishes. Smiling slightly, Iggy put his arms on the table, folded, and rested his head on his arms. "I'm, uh…Jeff, by the way…" he said groggily.

- - - - - - - -

"Circus Caravan?" Aunty Em looked at Percy suspiciously for a moment. Then she smiled. "Oh, you must be here to meet your ringmaster, am I correct? You also got separated?"

"Uh…" Percy looked at Annabeth and Grover.

"Jeff is waiting in the back. I am sure he will be happy to see you. Are you hungry?"

Percy looked wildly at Annabeth and Grover. "Great, we're screwed," Annabeth grumbled as they followed Aunty Em to the back of the warehouse.

"I didn't know there was an actual circus meeting here," Percy whispered defensively.

"There isn't as far as I know," Grover put in, looking at things as they passed by. Grover looked Aunty Em up and down and saw, in her hand, a pair of black, thick rimed square glasses with a familiar symbol carver into the bow of the glasses. Blinking in surprise, Grover didn't even notice that they had entered the backroom with all the food. On the table, asleep, was Iggy. They all recognized him immediately.

"Oh dear, I thought he would have woken up by now…" Aunty Em said, looking at Iggy. "Please don't wake him up; he's had a long day."

The three were too surprised by the sight of them that they really didn't hear what she said. "Iggy…?" Annabeth whispered to Percy, who shrugged in response.

"Iggy? No, no, that's Jeff," Aunty Em said, seeing her whisper to Percy.

"Uh….right, Iggy is his stage name," Percy lied quickly. "So he got lost huh?" he shot a quick look at Annabeth.

"Right, right, we were sent to look for him…uh, thanks for, um, finding him…" she said.

"No problem at all. Sit down; I'll get you some food."

The trio sat down around the sleeping Iggy, watching him uneasily. He made no sign of being awake, or alive, even. They would have thought he was dead if they didn't see his shoulders rise and fall with each deep breath. He was out like a light. Food was placed in front of them and they saw Iggy twitch slightly at the smell of fresh food. The three began eating hungrily.

"Whose glasses are those?" Percy asked as Aunty Em sat down, placing the glasses on the table but keeping a hold on them.

"Oh these? They belong to Jeff; I just took them so he wouldn't bend them in his sleep." They watched as she, hesitantly, removed her hands from the glasses, leaving them on the table.

"I didn't know he wore glasses," Grover said without thinking.

"Contacts…" Iggy mumbled, propping his head up slightly. "When did you get here?" he didn't even seem fazed by the sight…well, the sound of them being there. His eyes were still heavy and closed, so he could fall asleep once more when need be.

"Just got here a few minutes ago," Percy said, trying to sound calm. "How bout you?"

"Hours ago." Iggy buried his face in his arms again and let out a long sigh. He then held out his hand expectantly. "Give me my glasses please." Grover grabbed them and put them in his hand. Iggy wrapped his fingers around and pulled them back to himself.

"Why do you have those?" Grover asked quietly as Aunty Em got up again and walked back to the counter, cleaning up.

"Gift from a…guy…" he mumbled, holding them out again and showing them the bow, and the symbol that was placed on the end. Annabeth tried to grab them from him, but his grip tightened, pulling them back slightly.

"Oh, sorry."

"Meh…" Iggy mumbled, beginning to fall back to sleep.

- - - - - - - - -

"Now I'll just position you correctly," Aunty Em said as she led the group to a park bench. "The young girl in the middle, oh dear Jeff please put your glasses back on, you look so much better." Iggy's sleepy face flushed and he fumbled for his neatly placed glasses at the collar of his old grey long-sleeved shirt. He put them on, blinked, and stared at her uneasily for a moment.

"Very nice," Aunty Em said in a happy tone. "Now if you could please sit at the end…yes, thank you, the two younger gentlemen please sit at either side of the young lady." Percy and Grover sat down, Percy in between Annabeth and Iggy.

"Not much light for a photo," Percy remarked. Iggy tilted his head slightly, not looking at the trio, but everywhere else instead. Finally his eyes stopped at Aunty Em.

"Oh, enough," Aunty Em said. "Enough for us to see each other, yes?"

"Most of us…" Iggy said quietly, lying through his teeth in hopes to fool Percy, Annabeth and Grover. Percy grimaced slightly.

"Where's your camera?" Grover asked. Aunty Em ignored him.

Stepping back, she said, "Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you all smile for me, please, everyone? A large smile?" Blinking, Iggy looked at the ground, near her feet as he suddenly got a bad feeling.

"That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand." Iggy tilted his head slightly towards Grover as he said that.

"Grover," Aunty Em chastised, "look this way, dear. You too Jeff." Iggy glanced up, and then looked at the ground again. "I will just be a moment," Aunty Em continued. "You know, I can't see you very well in this cursed veil…" Iggy reached up his hand and fingered his glasses for about the tenth time since they woke him up; even when he wasn't wearing them he still fiddled with the glasses.

"Something is wrong," Iggy cocked his head farther to the side as Annabeth spoke up.

"Wrong?" Aunty Em said as she reached up to undo her wrap. Iggy looked up quickly, knowing something was very wrong. "Not at all, dear. I have such noble company tonight, what could be wrong?"

"That _is_ Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover gasped.

"Look away from her!" Annabeth didn't need to tell him twice, Iggy instantly pulled the glasses off and jumped to his feet. His wings rushed out with a loud _WHOOSH_, and with a large jump he was up in the air. He zoomed upward, the whistling of the wind blocking out the sounds from below. Straightening his wings, he managed to lower himself slowly, steadying his balance and listening to what was happening down on the ground.

"Iggy!" Grover's voice said from next to him. If he were on the ground, Iggy would have jumped to the moon. "Flying shoes," Grover supplied quickly before continuing with, "Do you have anything you can hit her with?" Not needing an explanation, Iggy reached into his somewhat open backpack and pulled out his collapsible cane, snapping it back together.

"Will this work?" he asked, swinging it around slightly.

"Yeah, come on!" Grover grabbed his arm and they dived down. Iggy easily tucked in his wings and went just a little bit faster than Grover.

"Where is she?" he asked over the wind.

"To your left!" Grover said. Iggy adjusted his position slightly and Grover said, over the wind, "Right below!"

Waiting a few seconds, Iggy swung down and went to smack her head, but only managed to get her shoulder. Luckily, though, he got it pretty good. Aunty Em, or as Percy and the others discovered, Medusa, staggered, yelling out in surprise as her shoulder erupted in pain. Unfortunately, Iggy wasn't able to let his wings unfurl before he came face to face with a statue, which he ended up knocking over and crashing into the ground with. He rolled away from the broken statue and got to his feet shakily as his newly scraped up knees stung in protest with his moving them.

Grover suddenly let out a yell as he tumbled into the statue in front of Iggy, almost knocking it over on top of him. Quickly, Iggy tightened his grip on the cane in his hand, and twisted the grip 360 degrees to the right and quickly the cane changed from just a plain white cane and into a long, thinly made sword. Moving around the statues quickly, he raised his sword and swung, and it sliced Medusa up pretty good on the arm. Percy charged in after Iggy and swung at her head with a disgusting _SHLUCK!_, and a hiss like wind rushing out of a cavern, the sound of a monster disintegrating. Iggy stuck his tongue out to show his disgust and fumbled for his glasses, desperately hoping they weren't broken.

"What was that?" Iggy practically snapped, pulling the lenses from his pocket. After doing a quick check, he saw that it seemed perfectly fine.

"Yuck," Grover said as he heard the gurgling sounds that raced through the air.

"What. Was. That?" Iggy asked again, annoyed. He didn't dare put his glasses on. "Don't move," Annabeth's voice said from next to Percy. "Are you ok?" she then asked a few moments later.

"Yeah," Percy said, for a moment ignoring Iggy. "Why didn't…why didn't the head evaporate?" Iggy fake gagged when he heard that, then rolled his pale blue eyes and with a flick of his wrist, the sword transformed back into a cane.

"Once you sever is, it becomes a spoil of war," Annabeth explained, also ignoring Iggy. "Same as your –"

"HEY!" Iggy finally snapped. All three heads swiveled over to him. "What, the hell, _was that_?" his patients finally running out.

"Medusa," Annabeth said bluntly. Iggy leaned back a bit, his eyebrows rising up high.

"Medusa? You mean…that lady with the snakes for hair? Like in that one movie…uh…Clash of the Titans?" Percy and Annabeth looked at each other.

"Sure." they said together. Silence.

"Ok then," Iggy said, finally satisfied. Iggy turned away from them and put his glasses back on. Blinking, he took note of the wreckage he caused with a statue, his face flushing slightly, and then grinning widely at the destruction he caused. Oh, if only Gazzy were there to high-five him, to celebrate in this wonderful mess. Suddenly, Annabeth tapped his shoulder and he turned to her, smiling. He saw her blond hair, and amazingly grey eyes that resembled storm clouds.

"What are you smiling about? And what are you doing here?" Iggy was honestly surprised that she didn't notice right away, how his eyes flickered all around, stopping to stare at some things, statues, her face, things like that. Rolling his eyes, his smile faded slightly and he looked her in the eyes again.

"Dunno, just like destruction I guess," he shrugged. "As for what I'm doing here…well, I'm looking for my flock." It was Annabeth's turn to look surprised. Blinking a few times, she looked him up and down.

"Can you…see?" she asked him incredulously. Iggy, laughing, nodded, and saw Grover look over quickly.

"Wait…where's Percy?"

"He went to go get something…where did you get those glasses?" Annabeth asked quickly.

"Hephaestus."

**MEDUSA!!!!! AAAH!! *runs away* lol anyway please review!**


	7. Chapter 7: What Happened

**I AM SOOOOO SORRY FOR THE WAIT! Please don't kill me! But, to make up for it, you get to know what happened to…half of the flock. Yeah. Please enjoy.**

**I do not own Maximum Ride or Percy Jackson**

Iggy was laying in a tree, spread out between two branches as he listened to Grover, Annabeth and Percy talking as they set up camp. He interjected every once in a while when something caught his interest, but mostly he just listened as he fiddled with the tape dispenser he "borrowed" from Medusa. He managed to tape them to the side of his face several times but it never worked very well.

"You know tape isn't going to hold those, right?" Annabeth asked when he somewhat managed to get it to work. But when he flipped over on the branch to test it out the fell clattering to the ground and he let out a curse. She got up and walked over to pick it up. He landed down next to her with a thud, and held out his hand expectantly. She took a moment to examine it before placing it in his hands. Fingering it, Iggy looked for damages, and put them back on.

"How many times have you dropped that now?" Annabeth asked, staring at them.

Shrugging, Iggy thought back and said, "Total amount? Probably…seven times this whole journey."

"And they haven't broken…" Annabeth murmured.

"Of course they haven't! They're glasses made to last from a god, after all!" Grover put in, looking over from his seat. Nodding, Iggy spread out his wings again and flew back up into the tree, back to his spot and the tape. Annabeth smirked as she saw him pull out long pieces of tape and then simply tear the pieces into smaller bits and attempt to tape the glasses to his face. Once or twice he did get some pieces stuck in his long hair and ended up yanking them out with a sharp hiss.

After what seemed like hours of trying to get them to stay, failing, going down to the roots of the tree, back up, and starting over, he simply fell asleep halfway through the process. He had dreamed of his flock again, but it was different than before.

He stood in the middle of a dark room, something like a thrown room. In front of him was a huge thrown made up of human bones fused together and two figures, the bigger of the two was sitting in the high backed chair. And boy was he HUGE! Incredibly tall and dressed in black silk robes and a crown was placed on his head. His hair was dark and long. Beside the thrown was a boy, Iggy's age, with long dark hair, black eyes, and all black clothes. Iggy recognized him immediately.

"Fang!" he called out, making to move closer but somehow he couldn't move. He reached out, waved his arms, trying to move to Fang. Fang blinked and looked over at the big man sitting next to him. The man looked back at him. Then, both looked back at Iggy. Iggy froze, fear freezing his heart as the man stared at him. He looked over at Fang, and saw him grimace.

"You…" he said quietly. "You don't belong here. Go back to your own god." The large man raised his hand, waved it through the air and the whole dark area around him burst, leaving him in nothing but whiteness.

"FAAAANG!"

"Who is Fang?" Iggy spun around quickly and found himself in an empty clothing store…a store that looked like a store made just for rich people. There was a small African-American girl standing near a rack of clothing, staring at him with big brown eyes. Iggy's face lit up instantly.

"Nudge!" he said happily. The girl raised her eyebrows and blinked, looking surprised. "Nudge…wow." Iggy looked her up and down and noticed how beautifully dressed she was in a short, flowing silk-like dress, and her long black hair tied up into a neat bun, leaving her blond streak to hang in her face, making her look all the more pretty. "You look…"

"Who are you?" Nudge asked him, looking a bit surprised and a little scared. Blinking, Iggy froze.

"N…Nudge…" Iggy said quietly. "It's me! Iggy!"

"I don't know an Iggy," Nudge said, looking skeptical. "Should I know you?"

"YES! We grew up together!" Iggy moved forward quickly and went to grab her, but she backed off, almost walking into another clothing rack. "Nudge, c'mon! You know me!" Iggy looked desperate. Nudge narrowed her eyes and slapped him across the face. Iggy stepped back, looking stunned.

"Look, creeper! I don't know you! Leave me alone!" and with that she turned-tail and ran, leaving Iggy standing there, stunned.

OoOoO

Iggy nearly fell out of the tree when he woke up with a start. Letting out a muffled yell, he buried his face in his hands and curled up slightly before getting up completely, fixed his glasses, and jumped out of the tree. Gliding down carefully, he landed next to Annabeth, who just happened to be awake as well. Grover was gone, and he took note of that quickly.

"Morning," Annabeth said, looking up at him.

"Hi. Where's Grover?" he asked.

"Oh, he went exploring. Want some food?" she said, holding up a bag of chips. Grimacing, Iggy took it and looked it over.

"You know, I could just go back to Aunty Em's and…uh, _make_ something," Iggy offered. "Something more…breakfast like?" although he had eaten bags of chips from vending machines for breakfast many times before, he was starving and that just wasn't going to cut it, especially for a bird kid.

"Could you really?" Annabeth asked hopefully. Nodding, Iggy stretched out his wings, flexing them a bit.

"I'll be back soon, alright?" and with that he did a running take off. It didn't take him very long to get back to the gnome emporium. Landing quietly, he did a quick 360 and moved inside, and to the back where the kitchen and food was. He worked quickly, filling up several plates with whatever good food he could find, which – luckily – was a lot. And much better than simple bags of chips. He found some eggs hidden in a fridge, so he cooked those up, fixed up a few quick hamburger patties, and then took the time to grab some bags of food for on the way. Stashing them in his bag quickly, he grabbed the few plates and hurried back to them, silver wear and all.

Annabeth stared at him as if he were the best thing in the world when he came back with the food. He handed her a plate and saw that Percy was still asleep, but was waking up at the smell of food.

"Wake up," Annabeth said, jabbing his leg with the tip of her shoes sharply. Iggy handed a plate of eggs to Grover and the little dirty pink poodle in his lap, whom he just noticed returned. Doing a quick double take, he rolled his eyes and walked over to Percy.

"Annabeth, just eat," he murmured, placing down his food and giving one last look at the poodle. He stood above Percy and took note of how he was shaking slightly. He jabbed him with his foot, paused, then knelt down and shook his shoulder.

"Gods, your worse than Max when she had those "episodes"…" Iggy said quietly, shaking his shoulder a little more roughly. Percy jerked slightly and woke up.

"The zombie lives!" Annabeth said, her mouth filled with eggs. Percy was trembling.

"How long was I asleep?" he asked, swallowing dryly. Iggy gave him a concerned look, and straightened up and grabbed the plate he made for him.

"Long enough for me to go make breakfast," Iggy grinned, handing it to him.

"Grover went exploring," Annabeth added. "Look, he found a friend."

Iggy moved over and sat at the trunk of the tree he slept in, and began eating his own food. He looked at the pink poodle again. But the dog paid him no attention, and yapped at Percy.

"No, he's not," Grover said. Iggy blinked, pausing mid bite, then just went back to eating. It didn't bother him that he could talk to animals. He had a talking dog, anyway.

"Are you…talking to that thing?" The poodle growled at Percy.

"This _thing_," Grover warned, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him."

"You can talk to animals?" Percy asked. Iggy got up, putting the plate on the ground. He flew back up into the tree and grabbed the tape, quickly putting it in his backpack, and flying back down.

"—gy –" Iggy quickly looked over his shoulder. "- Iggy -!" Off in the distance he saw a small black shape zigzagging through the trees, heading right for them. Running out there, Iggy ignored the others and went on his own judgment.

"Wait, Iggy!" Annabeth yelled. "What if it's a trap?"

"Total!" Iggy yelled, pouncing on the little black Scottie dog. Total yipped happily, licking his face. Then he paused.

"Wait…something is wrong with you," Total accused, glaring at Iggy, trying to see through him. "You never let me lick you! Same with Max."

"Hey! I'm just happy to see you!" Iggy said, scratching Total behind the ear. "Can you blame me for that?" Total moved away from him so he could look him up and down.

"I suppose not…why are you wearing glasses?" he finally asked.

"They're a gift from Hephaestus," Iggy shrugged, pushing them up the bridge of his nose again.

"The Greek god of fire and forge?" Total asked.

"That's the one," Iggy nodded.

"I don't believe that!" Total grumbled. Blinking, Iggy took off his glasses, fingered the bow, and found the symbol embedded into the metal framework. He showed it to Total, who simply gasped in return.

"_That's_ where you went, then!"

"What do you mean?" Iggy asked, putting the glasses back on and blinking to get things into focus. Total sat down and licked at his paw for a moment, which Iggy now noticed had a nasty scratch on it.

"The whole flock went missing that day, remember?" Total said, looking up at him. Iggy stared blankly, which, of course, Total just thought it was like any other day.

"No…I don't…" he then mumbled, looking away. "Do you know what happened?" he glanced back at Total, who was yet again licking at his scratched paw.

"Yes…" Total said, taking one last quick lick and looking back up at him with his beady eyes. "Care for a reminder?" Iggy nodded silently and waited.

"Well alright, remember that day we went back to New York, and I saw that museum? Well-"

_Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman and Angel all groaned when Total pestered them about going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, after seeing signs all over the large building about a new exhibit about Greek and Roman mythology stuff. After two and a half blocks of non-stop complaining, the flock gave in and agreed to go, but Total needed to wear a special vest that told people he was Iggy's Seeing Eye dog. Iggy honestly didn't want to go to a museum that was all about visuals._

_ But Total enjoyed it, and so did all the others as well. Max seemed to enjoy the facts, statues, and murals of Mount Olympus, and especially the god of the skies himself: Zeus. Fang took notice of that, and when he asked her why that was she just shrugged and said, "Dunno…just seems cool, I guess."_

_ "Fang! Fang! Look!" Fang turned and saw Nudge pointing at a mural labeled "Hades, God of the Underworld." Curious, Fang walked over and took a closer look. _

_ "What about it?" He asked, looking at Nudge. _

_ Beaming, Nudge said, "It kind of looks like you could be related to him!" Fang blinked, and his eyebrows rose. He glared over at Max as she doubled over laughing, as well as Gazzy, and then looked at Nudge again._

_ "God of the dead? Uh…huh…" Fang glanced back at the picture and thought for a moment. He hunched up his shoulders and, jokingly, made a grab for Nudge, who ducked out of the way while giggling like mad. "Give me your soul!" Fang said, going after her again. Max was practically rolling on the floor she was laughing so hard. _

_ "Max, you're kinda like Zeus…aren't you?" Angel asked, helping her to her feet as she finally calmed down, after getting some mean looks from tourists and workers. Fang was now inspecting the mural of Hades while Nudge went on to read some of the many brochures she had got from the main lobby of the museum. Gazzy was sitting next to Iggy on a bench near some god statues, letting Total wander close by to look at them. Iggy looked completely bored._

_ "How am I like Zeus?" Max asked, tilting her head slightly as she looked down at Angel._

_ "You're the leader…and…you fly…and…yeah…" Angel looked like she really didn't know why she thought that at all. Max smiled and patted Angel on the head and straightened up, looking around. _

_ "Did we satisfy you yet, Total?" Iggy mumbled through his palm as he sat with his head resting in his hand. He looked incredibly bored. _

_ "Nearly, yes," Total said, glancing back at him. Groaning, Iggy moved his hand up his face and through his hair. He stretched slightly and then stood up. As quickly as he stood, he froze, which set all other flock members on alert. _

_ "What is it, Iggy?" Max asked as they inched closer to him. Iggy put a finger to his lips and they all went quiet, letting him listen. _

_ "Outside…" he pointed behind them, right at a window. "Flapping wings…" _

_ "Like, feathery wings…or…?"_

_ "Leathery." Iggy cocked his head to the side. "Definitely leathery. Like a bat," he paused for a moment. A loud screech came from outside the window and the flock ducked when they saw a large shadow fly past the window. Iggy flinched._

_ "We should get out of here!" he said hurriedly, tugging on Total's chain and letting the others lead him to the exit._

_ After a brisk run, they burst from the museum and ran down the street, continuously glancing over their shoulders to see what was following them. An ugly thing with large leathery wings, talons for hands, yellow fangs, and the face of an old hag. A Fury, but they didn't know that…well, all except Total, who yelled out, "IT'S A FURY!" when he saw it._

_ "How do you know?" Max asked, her eyes wide with shock upon seeing the beast. _

_ "Greek Mythology!" Total started, "A Fury is a –" They didn't let him finish. Max scooped him up as she sprouted wings, along with everyone else, and took to the sky where they could all move faster. Iggy's hand was holding tightly to Gazzy's arm as they flew._

_ The Fury behind them snarled angrily and took up speed. Max, automatically assuming that the thing was after her, swerved away from the others so she could get ready to fight it after handing Total over to Fang. To her surprise, the Fury eased past her and raced to the rest of the flock._

_ "Hey!" Max yelled out, chasing after it. But the Fury was faster, by the time Max got relatively close, the beast had reached out and latched onto Fang, causing him to yelp in surprise. The Fury had a good hold on him, one that he couldn't break out of. The two of them swerved all over the sky, away from the flock, and Fang accidentally let Total slip from his grip. Luckily, though, Total had his wings almost fully grown in and managed to hover every few seconds instead of automatically falling to his death. Max dived down to catch him, and swooped back up to Fang, who was struggling less and less as the thing spoke to him._

_ "Your father called for us to get you!" the Fury said in a menacing voice. "Lord Hades will be happy to see you…you must come with me now…mustn't cause any more worry, now boy." Fang stopped struggling, enticed by the words. The beast smiled evilly and whispered something in Fang's ear, and by the time Max came close to them, Fang was unconscious and swept away by the monster._

_ "FANG!" Max yelled, still flying after them. _

_ "Wait Max! The sky!" Angel yelled, noticing the storm clouds rolling in. Max, surprisingly, ignored Angel and kept flying. She rose higher, and higher, and higher until she was actually up in the clouds. Iggy was left alone with Nudge, Gazzy and Angel, wondering what on earth was going on._

_ "Gazzy…" _

**CRASH!**

_ Thunder erupted so loudly that it seemed to shake all of New York, and Nudge Gazzy and Angel screamed when they saw Max drop from the sky, limp. Before she reached the rooftop of a building, a bright flash crashed down from the clouds, a lighting bolt, and hit Max. She disappeared in the flash. _

Iggy had a lump in his throat, and no matter how many times he swallowed, it wouldn't go away. He was staring at the ground, just an inch away from Total as he blinked back tears he didn't dare shed. He remembered that much now.

"What happened next?" Iggy asked quietly, looking at Total. Total was staring at him with his beady black eyes.

"I don't know. I was with Max, remember? But when the lightning hit I woke up on the rooftop…" Total said quietly. "No idea why I'm the only one who remembers."

"Have you found the others yet?" Iggy asked quickly. Total looked up at him.

"No, you are the first."

Groaning, Iggy rolled his head back and stood up. He motioned for Total to follow him, which he obeyed, and they walked back to the others in silence. Out of the corner of his eye, Total saw Iggy rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand, his shoulders shaking slightly. As they entered the small "camp site", Annabeth looked up immediately.

"Iggy! What's wrong?" she asked, getting to her feet. Grover and Percy watched silently from their seats on the ground. Iggy lowered his hand and smiled softly.

"Found one of my flock…" he said, pointing down at Total.

"Oh how cute!" Annabeth cooed, bending down to pet Total. "A dog is part of your family?"

"If you consider that, then yes," Total said, making Annabeth jump in surprise. "I consider myself part of them, but Iggy thinks I'm Angel's pet."

"Yeah, well so does Max and Fang," Iggy said, tapping Total with his toes with a sad grin.

**So sad. Please review!**


	8. Chapter 8: On The River Bank

**Update time! Was it faster this time? Just finished it the other day, but couldn't update sooner because an old friend of mine is back in town and I spent just about every day with him this week. And then there was drivers training. And yeah. So here we go!**

** And just a note, if people send me messages asking me when I'm going to update, I won't answer because of 1 reason: I have no idea. It takes me FOREVER to finish these and I'm trying my hardest, so DON'T ask, it's kind of rude.**

** I own nothing! and OOC-ness, like usual.**

Iggy decided to stick with Percy, Annabeth and Grover. From what he gathered, he would most likely find his flock where they were heading, or more so based on where he could find Fang. So now he was sitting on the train, next to Grover and with Total on his lap. Across from him were Annabeth and Percy. Percy, at that particular time, was pacing the length of the train, Grover was asleep and Iggy kept glancing at the newspaper. Total had gotten up, stretched, and for a change of pace, moved across to sit in Annabeth's lap. Annabeth didn't seem to mind and simply scratched him behind the ears as she watched Iggy take the newspaper and squint at it.

"Anything interesting?" Annabeth asked with a small grin. Iggy nervously looked at her over the top of the paper and grimaced.

"Percy's on the front page…" he mumbled, pointing to the paper.

"Yeah. The description is really bad, too," Annabeth said. Iggy grimaced again and threw the paper onto Percy's empty seat.

"Wouldn't know," Iggy grumbled, crossing his arms. "I can't read." Annabeth looked surprised at first, then blinked and stared at him softly. "You know I wasn't blind my whole life right?" he asked her cautiously as she stared at him.

"Oh that's right…so didn't you learn when you could see?"

"No," Iggy said sourly. "Couldn't speak either, really. We didn't really learn anything until we got out of the School, which was, like, four years ago, maybe." Annabeth gave him a sympathetic look. "Hell, even the dog can read!" Iggy pouted, looking like he wanted to kick Total. He didn't know what came over him then, maybe it was all the stress building up since they all got separated.

"Grover could teach you to read, if he wakes up," Annabeth said, trying to be helpful.

"Why not you?" Iggy asked, his cheeks turning slightly pink as he stared into her grey eyes.

"Both me and Percy are dyslexic, we can read ancient Greek just fine, but English? That's harder." Iggy blinked and sighed.

"I'm tired," he said bluntly, taking his glasses off and scooting down the seat slightly. He wasn't really tired, but he closed his sightless eyes and pretended to sleep. He was going to stay awake as long as he could, refusing to dream. But maybe if he dreamed, he would know where the others were? Whatever, he didn't care.

He heard Percy come back and sit down again, and Iggy could feel him look at him for a moment. Iggy's nose twitched, but he made no other movements.

"Is Iggy ok…?" Percy whispered to Annabeth. Iggy's ears perked, but still he remained quiet.

"He's a bit upset, by my guess," Annabeth whispered back. "He kinda seems stressed, don't you think?"

"I guess so…"

"I think he's still awake," Total broke in. The two froze and looked at Iggy, who – using his best acting skills - let out a deep sigh-like breath and a slight snore, sounding just like a person who just fell asleep.

"He must be really tired," Annabeth said sympathetically. Total snorted as if she just made a joke, then all was silent.

XxXxXxXxX

Iggy had stayed awake for a good two days by the time the group made it to the Gateway Arch. They were in the underground tunnel waiting for their turn to ride to the top, and Iggy couldn't stop yawning. He was blind yet again, wearing a pair of sunglasses he literally stole off some random guy's head - the guy never even seemed to notice they were gone - as they made their way to the Gateway Arch. He had a leash tied around his wrist that connected to the orange jacket Total was wearing that said "Seeing Eye Dog, Do Not Pet". It was the only way they could let Total come in with them. Total, at the time, was in Annabeth's arms and both were talking quietly about the Arch. Being underground in the confined, crowded space made Iggy twitchy and nervous, which was shown as he continually drummed his long fingers on his legs. Percy grimaced as he watched him, wearing the glasses that Iggy got from Hephaestus. Since Iggy couldn't exactly be blind with them on, he forced Percy to wear them, although they didn't affect his vision in any way.

The group reached the front of the line soon enough, and before any security saw them, Annabeth quickly put Total on the ground and Total stood in front of Iggy, just out of reach of the white pole in the blind bird-boys hand. Before they could get on the small elevator, a security guard stopped Iggy.

In a very rude voice, the guard said, "Why would a blind boy like you want to go up to a place that involves a sky view of a city? It's more of a thing for seeing people."

Iggy looked a bit offended. "He's with us," Annabeth said before Iggy could respond. "We couldn't just leave him out there by himself."

"Right….right, go on," the guard sounded less than enthusiastic, but he would have to deal with it because Iggy was already on the elevator, twitchier than ever in the even smaller, confined space. He scooped up Total with one hand and with his other he started to drum against his leg faster.

The fat denim-clad lady that was crammed in the elevator with them was watching Iggy with deep interest for a moment, and then the Chihuahua started to bark at Total. Total barked back a few times and then paid no attention to the dog.

"Now, now, sonny, behave yourself," the woman said to the Chihuahua.

"Sonny. Is that his name?" Percy asked.

"No."

The elevator door opened and Iggy nearly jumped out, about to loose it in there. He set Total down and let him lead him around the room. Iggy really didn't care, but he did somewhat want to see the view. Percy stood next to him by the windows and nudged him in the side with his elbow.

"Want your glasses?" Percy asked, taking them off. Iggy shook his head.

"If I go flying later I'll see a better view," he said with a slight smile. Percy nodded and put the glasses back on.

"You seem really jumpy," Percy mumbled, noticing how much Iggy was drumming against his leg.

"So do you," Iggy replied. "I can tell," he added before Percy could question him.

"Heights and a small space do not mix well," Percy said with a shrug.

"Heights are no problem for me, it's the space," Iggy said. "So I half-way know how you feel."

Out of nowhere, Annabeth snatched Iggy and Percy and started going on and on about the structural supports, and how she would improve the experience of being in a box six hundred feet in the air. Percy seemed bored by it, Iggy didn't really care, and if Total was able to talk at that time, he would have agreed with almost anything Annabeth said. Too bad there were other people in the room with them. Annabeth probably would have made them stay forever if the park ranger hadn't announced that the observation deck was going to be closing soon.

Both Iggy and Percy steered Grover and Annabeth to the elevator but couldn't get in with them, thanks to the two other tourists inside. "Next car, boys," the ranger said, holding the two back.

"We'll get out," Annabeth said, "And wait with you guys."

"Naw, its okay," Percy said.

"Yeah, we'll meet you at the bottom," Iggy added in, moving away and looking bored. Percy waved to them as the door closed, and walked over to Iggy. He looked around and saw the fat lady and her Chihuahua, a little boy and his parents, and a park ranger left. Percy smiled uneasily at the fat lady and she smiled back. Iggy was leaning against the wall and stiffened when he realized something was…wrong. He heard the Chihuahua yapping and the lady say, "Now, now, sonny. Does this look like a good time? We have all these nice people here."

The little boy in the room started squealing about the dog when Iggy realized something was _really_ wrong. "Percy…give me my glasses," Iggy said. Percy ignored him as he talked to the fat lady. Iggy untied the leash from his wrist and nudged Total behind him. Total was too busy staring at the small dog to notice what Iggy was doing. When the little boy screamed, Iggy moved forward and grabbed Percy's shoulder.

"Percy! Give me my glasses!" he ordered; Percy did as he was told. Iggy threw his "borrowed" sunglasses to the side and once he put the glasses on he jumped back in surprise. The Chihuahua had transformed into a huge beast with a lions head, a blood caked mane, the body of a giant goat, and a snake for a tail.

Relying on reflexes only, Iggy quickly snapped his cane 360 degrees and it transformed into his thin blade. He wasn't even listening to what they were saying, he wasn't even aware that the fat snake lady – which somehow didn't surprise Iggy as much as the Chimera – and Percy were talking.

Before Iggy realized it, Percy was jumping to the side as the Chimera charged, his large sharp teeth chomping down where Percy just was. Iggy backed away quickly and brandished his blade, ready to fight. He looked over and saw Percy by the other people, who were trying to pry open the emergency exit. The Chimera turned to Iggy and inched closer, snarling and baring its teeth at Iggy. Iggy took a wide swipe at the beast and managed to cut its face, slightly. Not enough to do major damage. The chimera opened its mouth wide and before it could do anything, Percy ran a few feet away from Iggy, and yelled, "Hey Chihuahua!" to get its attention.

The chimera turned faster than both boys thought and shot a column of flame straight at Percy. Luckily, Percy dove away, ending up right in front of Iggy. The carpet burst into flames and a huge hole appeared in the side of the Arch, with melted metal steaming around the edges.

As the chimera turned back to the boys and Percy slashed at its neck with riptide, which ended up sparking uselessly against the dog collar. "Percy, look out!" Iggy snapped as the serpent tail whipped around and sank its fangs into Percy's calf. Iggy swung down with his sword and managed to nearly chop the serpent head clean off. The chimera roared angrily and swatted at Iggy with its large hooves, and managed to send the bird boy flying right out the hole, and into the air.

Too stunned to even unfurl his wings, Iggy ended up dropping like a stone. The air was knocked right out of his lungs, and as he gasped for breath he found himself splashing right into the mucky river below. Air bubbles burst from Iggy's mouth as he sunk to the bottom, and it was a time like that where he wished he could breathe underwater like Angel. But he really didn't want to risk trying that again, especially in that gross water. Stuck deep in the mud, Iggy quickly unfurled his wings through the narrow slits in the back of his shirt, and used them to lift himself out by pushing the stretched out wings down. He swam up to the surface using his wings, legs, and one arm. The other was busy keeping his glasses on his face.

Iggy shot out of the water and landed with a loud thud on the river bank, still half way in the water. He made good distance between himself and the river when he launched out, he hoped no one saw him.

"Iggy!" Annabeth's voice said from far away. He didn't bother to get up; he just concentrated on trying to catch his breath. Annabeth ran over and helped him sit up and move out of the water. Iggy was shivering violently.

"How…how did you find me?" Iggy gasped, looking around and saw the crowed that gathered to observe the explosion on the Arch. He looked up and swallowed hard as he wondered what was going on up there.

"I saw you launch out of the water," Annabeth said, following his gaze up at the Arch. "Are you ok? What happened?"

"I fell," Iggy said bluntly, looking at her quickly. "There's a big…thing…up there. I think the tag said Chimera…"

"Oh gods…" Annabeth muttered. Iggy quickly explained what happened, Annabeth hanging on every word.

"…and then I fell and here I am," Iggy finished. "Hey…where's Grover?"

"He's somewhere in the crowed, looking for Percy," Annabeth said quietly, looking up at the Arch. Iggy got to his feet a bit shakily and Annabeth followed his lead.

Suddenly they saw a figure fall from the hole, and then a small black dot fell out after him. "Percy!" Annabeth yelled out in surprise. "Total!" Iggy yelled out.

"Iggy, go catch them!" Annabeth screeched, panicking. Iggy nodded and whipped out his wings, doing an Up and Away like he had so many other times.

"Percy!" Iggy yelled as he soared amazingly fast up to the falling figures. He reached out to grab Percy as soon as he was within arms reach, but the twelve year old slipped right through his grasp. But Total, on the other hand, plopped down right on Iggy's head and made him drop several feet as if he were a rock. Iggy spun around, got a better grip on the wriggling dog, and dove down after Percy. But when he finally saw him again, Percy landed in the water. Groaning, Iggy looked over at the crowed and saw news crews. He saw the cameras focused on him for a moment, and he easily dived down back into the water and saw away, back to where he left Annabeth.

"I failed," Iggy gasped as he crawled out of the water. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," Annabeth said, frowning deeply and staring into the river. Grover pushed his way through the crowd and over to them, looking somewhat out of breath.

"What's going on?" he demanded, seeing Annabeth's worried look and Iggy and Total soaked head to toe. Total, who was on the ground, shook the water off and stood absolutely still, too shaken to talk. So Iggy quickly gave him an explanation, while continuously glancing back at the river.

Just as he finished explaining, he looked at the river one last time and let out a loud sigh of relief. "There he is!" Iggy practically yelled, scooping up Total and running over to where Percy had surfaced. "Percy!" Iggy yelled. Percy looked over and waved at him as he stood on the bank, completely dry. He was listening to the news woman nearby.

"Probably not a terrorist attack, we're told, but it's still very early in the investigation," Iggy heard. He strained his ears to hear another news crew nearby.

The man said, "We have reason to believe that the mysterious figure that flew up to catch the two falling items is one of the infamous group members of Maximum Ride's Flock, who has currently gone missing from their last scheduled appearance about a month ago. The Flock is most known through the Flock member Fang, and his blog online, which has not been updated as it usually would have been. Fang, who has a distinct "black only" look, according to our sources, could not have been the one to fly up earlier. Since the figure seemed to be male, it could only have been the blind boy, Iggy."

Iggy tensed, hearing his name, sighed and rolled his eyes. He turned back to the others and saw the three deep in conversation. He walked over and tapped on Annabeth's shoulder. When she turned to face him, the others did as well. "We need to get out of here," Iggy said, dead serious.

"I agree, lets get back to the train station," Grover said, sounding almost grateful.

**Was it good? I hope so, and if there are any loose ends in this chapter, hopefully they will be cleaned up in the next one, like how Iggy doesn't seem at all hurt from the fight…I'll clear that up, too. PLEASE REVIEW! **


	9. Chapter 9: Something Smells

** OH MY GOD I'M ALIVE! Yes, I am back, and deeply sorry for the loooooooong wait, and I am also sorry that this is a short chapter, but it's a good one, I hope. So you can do your happy dances now.**

** I've been really busy lately, sorry. Had a family emergency a little after the last update, and then school started, and I just finished semester finals, so here is an update to tide you over for now. Please enjoy, I hope you like!**

** Thanks so much for the positive reviews, and now you can read. **

"Iggy, you don't look so good," Percy said as they got off the train. Iggy stepped off, wincing as he moved, and brought his hand up to his side.

Shaking his head, Iggy said, "I'm going to the bathroom. I'll be back in a minute." The three nodded as Iggy left them, shuffling towards the restroom. His head hurt, his ribs hurt, his back hurt, everything hurt. But his ribs hurt the most.

Lucky for him, the bathroom was empty at the moment. He moved over to the mirrors and, as gingerly as he could, he lifted up his shirt. He hadn't checked anything at all the day before, he didn't even feel hurt. It was when he first got up on the train that morning that it hurt. When he stood up the pain swept over him at such a high rate that his knees buckled and he almost fell back down.

Iggy hissed when he saw the huge bruise encasing his chest. He felt his ribs and could definitely tell that at least a few of them were broken. Looking around the room, he then turned around to look at his back. His wings seemed okay, which was good. There were small bruises and scrapes all over his arms and legs, but other than the broken ribs and splitting headache, he was fine. He smoothed out his shirt and splashed cold water on his face, trying to clear his busy head to think about what he should do about his wounds. He could go to a doctor, but that would be dangerous.

He reached out for his discarded glasses next to him and walked out of the room as he put them in his pockets. Something told him that he should stop using them for a while.

"Iggy, are you okay?" Annabeth asked him as soon as he left the room. She had been waiting for him.

"No," Iggy said, shaking his head. "A few broken ribs and a headache."

"Oh gods, how did that happen?"

"The Chimera, of course. Where's Total?"

"Right here," Total said, nudging Iggy's foot. Annabeth put Total's leash in Iggy's hand and stepped away.

"Anything we can do to help?" she asked. Iggy shook his head.

"No, I'm gonna go find a doctor."

It was something Iggy really didn't want to do, but he really didn't have a choice. He didn't have any money to buy really good pain pills, let alone a prescription for one. Before he left them, he had to convince the three that he had to go alone. After he said goodbye to them all about three times, he was out in the city with Total leading the way. They moved in silence, the two not paying attention to anybody, and nobody paying attention to them. It all worked out. A few times, though, as they reached a four way stop, some friendly sounding people asked if they could help. Iggy would tell them that he needed to go see the doctor for his regular check up, but he was lost. They kindly told him directions and Total led the way.

"You are a very brave boy, going to the doctors by yourself," said one elderly woman. Iggy just nodded curtly and went on his way. Someone even offered to pay for a taxi ride there, afraid of the blind boy getting lost. He politely declined. He just figured nobody saw a blind boy in Denver before.

"Hey, Ig," Total said once they entered a less busy section of the city. Iggy stopped next to Total and tapped the ground impatiently with his cane, wincing as his head burned and ribs ached.

"What's up?" he asked. He dropped his cane on purpose, and as it rolled away, he dropped to his knees with a hiss and began searching for it. Although it was really just to get down to Totals level so he could hear him better.

"I smell some familiar stink heading our way," Total said. Iggy raised his eyebrows and remained motionless in his reached out position. He mouthed something he hadn't said or heard in a long time. "I smell something…Gazzy," Total added, plopping down and waging his tail somewhat excitedly.

"You're joking right…?" Iggy asked, beginning to grope around for his cane again. He heard footsteps stop right in front of him, and smelled a familiar pungent smell. He cane was put into his hand by an unseen force.

"You okay?" asked a familiar, young voice. "You lost?" Iggy's grip tightened on his cane hard enough that his knuckles turned white. The boy helped him to his feet.

"Do you know me?" Iggy asked, grabbing onto the cane with both hands now.

"You seem really familiar, but I have no idea," he said, smiling kindly. "What's your name?"

"Uh…Iggy," he mumbled.

"Iggy, huh?"

"Is your name Gazzy?" Iggy asked. The boy stared at him surprised.

"How did you -?"

Iggy smiled and reached in his pocket for his glasses. This would be his first time seeing Gazzy. He put them on and he got one quick look at him before his sight went blurry, his head seared with pain, and he fell to the ground. His head felt like it was about to burst open.

"Whoa! Are you okay?"

Iggy blacked out.

XxXxXxX

"Are you okay?"

_Who's that?_ Iggy thought. _Gazzy…?_

"Iggy, are you okay?" Iggy opened his eyes and saw nothing but black. He felt his face. No glasses. He sighed and sat up.

"Gazzy?" he mumbled.

"Yeah. Oh man, you scared me for a minute, Ig," Gazzy said, letting out a huge sigh of relief. Iggy swung his leg over the side of whatever he was laying on and, to his surprise, let out a breath of air. He expected pain, so he held his breath, but he felt fine. He felt his sides. No pain. No more headache.

"What…?"

Gazzy chuckled and put Iggy's glasses in his hands. "Total's here too. Don't worry, dad fixed you up."

"Dad?"  
"Yeah. Apollo, the Greek god of the sun," Gazzy said. Iggy fingered his glasses for a moment, feeling to symbol on the bow. "I saw the symbol on your glasses…so I pretty much figured you out."

"Do you remember me?" Iggy asked.

"A little, yeah."

"Like how we used to make bombs together? And prank Max?" Iggy put the glasses on, blinked several times, and looked Gazzy up and down.

He had short, scruffy blond hair, big blue eyes, short – but not the size of normal eight year olds. He was just as Iggy thought he would look like. Iggy smiled brightly at him, Gazzy smiled back.

"Yeah, I remember that," the boy said. He jumped to the seat next to him. "What happened to the others?"

"I don't know. But I'm looking for them," Iggy said, shrugging.

"Are they lost?"

"Sorta," Iggy said, watching as Gazzy absentmindedly swinging his legs. "How did you remember?" he asked. Gazzy looked at him.

"I don't know. I just…did," he said, smiling softly. "I saw you and…it just sorta came together. Like a puzzle. But a lot is still missing." Iggy nodded in understanding and let out a long, low sigh.

"We need to find the others." Iggy looked over at Gazzy slowly, a tiny smile gracing the corner of his lips. Gazzy was staring at his hands. It was then that Iggy noticed his hands shaking, as well as the rest of him. Gazzy looked worried. Scared, more or less. It was an odd sight. The child squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed them with the back of his palm, rubbing away the traces of tears.

"Gazzy?"

"I'm scared," Gazzy admitted, staring at Iggy with wide eyes. He bit his bottom lip, stopping it from quivering. Gazzy never cried, this was serious business. "I'm scared, Iggy. What happened to them? What happened to Angel? Will we even find them?" Iggy threw his arm over the boy's shoulder and pulled him closer.

"I have no clue, but it'll turn out good in the end. We'll be a family again, just be patient," Iggy said. They sat in silence for a while, just enjoying each others company for the moment, after what felt like years of being apart. Partners in crime, reunited. And, slowly, a smile returned to Gazzy's face.

**Brotherly love! Kinda. I love it! Anyway, thanks for reading, sorry for the wait, and please review! Hopefully I'll update faster next time.**


	10. PREVIEW

**Here's a Christmas gift for all my loyal fans! Here's a preview for the next chapter! But since its been so long since I last updated, I will work on this finished version to be as long as I can make it, to make up for it. But merry Christmas and happy holidays, my friends!**

"So you feel it too, huh?" Iggy asked as he followed Gazzy's lead. Both were high in the sky, following a strange static like buzz that slowly grew stronger and stronger in the back of their mind, something familiar. The same thing, in fact, that Iggy followed in the beginning of his journey.

"Yeah," Gazzy nodded, doing a quick mid-air flip with a big grin. Off in the distance, the boys saw a silhouette of a park of some sort. Closer still, they saw it was a water park, left abandoned with no water, everything shut down. Both Gazzy and Iggy winced and lowered themselves to the ground as the static buzz grew stronger.

"Watrad?" Iggy struggled reading the sign. He looked down at the snickering Gazzy.

"I think its Waterland," Total said, "Some of the letters are smashed." Iggy nodded and they simply stared at the entrance, an uneasy feeling welling up in both of them.

"Do we go in…or…?" Gazzy mumbled, looking at the older boy and the talking dog in his arms.

"I think we should check it out," Iggy gulped. And in they went. They passed a gift shop, gazing into the windows to see what kind of stuff the place would sell. Mostly t-shirts and swimming stuff, it seemed. Total trotted on the ground in between them, quietly looking around.

"Gazzy?" the eight year old looked up at him quickly. "Do you have dreams about the others?" Iggy asked. Gazzy looked up towards the sky, thinking back.

"Kinda," he nodded. "Like, I dreamed once that you were fighting someone in armor and then this big black dog thing came and attacked the people. You got hurt." Iggy rubbed his shoulder, remembering the capture the flag. He still had scars from where that hellhound bit him. And, just by remembering the incident, Iggy chuckled. That was when they found out about his wings.

"That really happened, Gazzy," Iggy said with a grin. He rolled up his sleeve as high as possible and showed the younger the scars. Gazzy looked impressed.

They didn't get very far into the park when they heard a high, shrill scream, and a very familiar one at that. But, since both boys didn't expect it, they nearly jumped out of their feathers. Despite fear urging them to run away, they both ran towards it. The shrieks continued into hysteria as they got closer, the sounds of little metallic items scattering around. The voice continuously shrieked for help. Both boys whipped out their wings and glided to where the voice came from, their jaws nearly dropping when they saw the entrance to a slide, barricaded by millions of golden threads and several cupid statues with cameras for heads. Gazzy saw the figure first, a young African American girl screaming and clawing at the golden thread, small mechanical things crawling all over her. The buzz in their heads turned into a forceful throb as they stared – shocked – at Nudge.

"Nudge!" Iggy yelled, groping for his cane in his backpack. He pulled it out and twisted it, transforming it into a sword. He began slicing furiously at the thread, trying as hard as he could to get her out. The sword didn't do much; whatever threads were snapped grew back, entangling his sword in them. Iggy got a good look at the things crawling all over the bird girl. Spiders! Little Mechanical spiders! _Ingenious,_ he couldn't help but think. _Hephaestus is a mad genius!_ A faint smile formed, but vanished. How on earth did he know it was all Hephaestus's work?

It was then that he noticed there was a voice counting down from somewhere. "Forty, thirty-nine…" Iggy looked around quickly as he tried to yank out his sword. Nudge was still screaming nonsense, and behind him, Iggy could see Gazzy working on something. A bomb? Iggy was proud, he had taught him well. After a moment, he realized what the countdown was for. The cameras, when the countdown reached zero it would go live to somewhere – Mount Olympus? – and whoever was trapped inside would be put on display like an animal at the zoo. That enraged Iggy. No member of his family would go through that if he could help it.

"Gazzy, got a plan?" Iggy asked, finally yanking his sword free.

"Kinda, but it'll be messy," Gazzy said, bringing over an impressive looking bomb. Iggy raised his eyebrows as he watched him set it up.

"We got a time limit, Gazzy, hurry it up," Iggy said.

"Alright, alright," Gazzy said, finishing up the final touches, placing the bomb next to the threads, which slowly began to envelope it. "Nudge, get back, but be prepared to move!" Gazzy ordered. Nudge stopped shrieking, nodded, and hopped back, still swatting away spiders. "Iggy, can you keep the threads back? The bombs gonna make a hole so she can get through."

"Brilliant, sure."

"You have to be fast."

"That's fine." Gazzy flew back to a safe distance and Iggy heard the bomb counting down already. The timed beeps of the bomb mixed with the countdown, of which they only had about ten seconds left. Iggy's heart pounded, preparing himself.

With a blinding flash of light, the bomb went off, blowing away the thread in a great burst of energy. Iggy ducked through the explosion, the thread like whips as it slashed everywhere, cutting his arms to ribbons, and used himself to keep the hole open.

"Nudge! Come on!" He yelled as the thread started wrapping around him. Nudge blazed by, ducking under him and skid across the ground, gasping as she stared with wide eyes. The threads had a good grip on him, weighing him down. Gazzy had run to Nudge, and once she saw him, held on and seemed to never want to let go. Iggy stepped forward and tripped, falling flat on his stomach, his glasses flying off his face. His arms seared with pain as he noticed his arms were badly burned from the bomb's explosion. The thread continued to tie him down.

"**STOP!**" All three heads swiveled over to the sound of the deep, strong voice. "Systems shut down, immediately!" Iggy could feel the thread stop swarming him, and the cameras hadn't turned on, but he was still pinned. He heard heavy uneven footsteps head his way, and then two large hands grabbed him and pulled him out of the thread.

**I feel like this could already be a short chapter, but yeah. just a preview. So eventually there will be a longer chapter taking place!**


	11. Chapter 10: Hello Daddy

**OMG GUYS GUESS WHAT! I finally got a new copy of the lightening thief! So here you go! The full chapter! Omg!1!one!q!**

"So you feel it too, huh?" Iggy asked as he followed Gazzy's lead. Both were high in the sky, following a strange static like buzz that slowly grew stronger and stronger in the back of their mind, something familiar. The same thing, in fact, that Iggy followed in the beginning of his journey.

"Yeah," Gazzy nodded, doing a quick mid-air flip with a big grin. Off in the distance, the boys saw a silhouette of a park of some sort. Closer still, they saw it was a water park, left abandoned with no water, everything shut down. Both Gazzy and Iggy winced and lowered themselves to the ground as the static buzz grew stronger.

"Watrad?" Iggy struggled reading the sign. He looked down at the snickering Gazzy.

"I think its Waterland," Total said, "Some of the letters are smashed." Iggy nodded and they simply stared at the entrance, an uneasy feeling welling up in both of them.

"Do we go in…or…?" Gazzy mumbled, looking at the older boy and the talking dog in his arms.

"I think we should check it out," Iggy gulped. And in they went. They passed a gift shop, gazing into the windows to see what kind of stuff the place would sell. Mostly t-shirts and swimming stuff, it seemed. Total trotted on the ground in between them, quietly looking around.

"Gazzy?" the eight year old looked up at him quickly. "Do you have dreams about the others?" Iggy asked. Gazzy looked up towards the sky, thinking back.

"Kinda," he nodded. "Like, I dreamed once that you were fighting someone in armor and then this big black dog thing came and attacked the people. You got hurt." Iggy rubbed his shoulder, remembering the capture the flag. He still had scars from where that hellhound bit him. And, just by remembering the incident, Iggy chuckled. That was when they found out about his wings.

"That really happened, Gazzy," Iggy said with a grin. He rolled up his sleeve as high as possible and showed the younger the scars. Gazzy looked impressed.

They didn't get very far into the park when they heard a high, shrill scream, and a very familiar one at that. But, since both boys didn't expect it, they nearly jumped out of their feathers. Despite fear urging them to run away, they both ran towards it. The shrieks continued into hysteria as they got closer, the sounds of little metallic items scattering around. The voice continuously shrieked for help. Both boys whipped out their wings and glided to where the voice came from, their jaws nearly dropping when they saw the entrance to a slide, barricaded by millions of golden threads and several cupid statues with cameras for heads. Gazzy saw the figure first, a young African American girl screaming and clawing at the golden thread, small mechanical things crawling all over her. The buzz in their heads turned into a forceful throb as they stared – shocked – at Nudge.

"Nudge!" Iggy yelled, groping for his cane in his backpack. He pulled it out and twisted it, transforming it into a sword. He began slicing furiously at the thread, trying as hard as he could to get her out. The sword didn't do much; whatever threads were snapped grew back, entangling his sword in them. Iggy got a good look at the things crawling all over the bird girl. Spiders! Little Mechanical spiders! _Ingenious,_ he couldn't help but think. _Hephaestus is a mad genius!_ A faint smile formed, but vanished. How on earth did he know it was all Hephaestus's work?

It was then that he noticed there was a voice counting down from somewhere. "Forty, thirty-nine…" Iggy looked around quickly as he tried to yank out his sword. Nudge was still screaming nonsense, and behind him, Iggy could see Gazzy working on something. A bomb? Iggy was proud, he had taught him well. After a moment, he realized what the countdown was for. The cameras, when the countdown reached zero it would go live to somewhere – Mount Olympus? – and whoever was trapped inside would be put on display like an animal at the zoo. That enraged Iggy. No member of his family would go through that if he could help it.

"Gazzy, got a plan?" Iggy asked, finally yanking his sword free.

"Kinda, but it'll be messy," Gazzy said, bringing over an impressive looking bomb. Iggy raised his eyebrows as he watched him set it up.

"We got a time limit, Gazzy, hurry it up," Iggy said.

"Alright, alright," Gazzy said, finishing up the final touches, placing the bomb next to the threads, which slowly began to envelope it. "Nudge, get back, but be prepared to move!" Gazzy ordered. Nudge stopped shrieking, nodded, and hopped back, still swatting away spiders. "Iggy, can you keep the threads back? The bombs gonna make a hole so she can get through."

"Brilliant, sure."

"You have to be fast."

"That's fine." Gazzy flew back to a safe distance and Iggy heard the bomb counting down already. The timed beeps of the bomb mixed with the countdown, of which they only had about ten seconds left. Iggy's heart pounded, preparing himself.

With a blinding flash of light, the bomb went off, blowing away the thread in a great burst of energy. Iggy ducked through the explosion, the thread like whips as it slashed everywhere, cutting his arms to ribbons, and used himself to keep the hole open.

"Nudge! Come on!" He yelled as the thread started wrapping around him. Nudge blazed by, ducking under him and skid across the ground, gasping as she stared with wide eyes. The threads had a good grip on him, weighing him down. Gazzy had run to Nudge, and once she saw him, held on and seemed to never want to let go. Iggy stepped forward and tripped, falling flat on his stomach, his glasses flying off his face. His arms seared with pain as he noticed his arms were badly burned from the bomb's explosion. The thread continued to tie him down.

"**STOP!**" All three heads swiveled over to the sound of the deep, strong voice. "Systems shut down, immediately!" Iggy could feel the thread stop swarming him, and the cameras hadn't turned on, but he was still pinned. He heard heavy uneven footsteps head his way, and then two large hands grabbed him and pulled him out of the thread.

Iggy's glasses were placed on the bridge of his nose, only halfway shoved on, and he had to blink a few times to bring everything back into focus. He looked over and saw Gazzy and Nudge, staring wide eyed at him, and he couldn't understand why. It was after a moments thought he realized there were two bear like hands holding him up.

"Erm…how are those arms?" came a deep, awkward voice behind him. The voice sounded like it was trying to make an effort, but not really knowing quite what to say in this situation. Iggy looked up at the bearded man, confused.

"Burned and cut," Iggy stated. He squirmed out of the grip and moved over to his flock members. He heard the heavy, uneven footsteps following him over, and it set him on edge.

"You girl, what were you thinking? Going in there, it was an obvious trap meant for Ares." Nudge looked up at the man, embarrassed.

"My mom wanted her scarf back," she mumbled. Iggy glanced at the man and saw him mull things over, then sigh.

"I'm not really one for apologies, but obviously you're important to my son here, so…uh…"

"WAIT A MINUTE," Iggy suddenly yelled, spinning to face him. The man looked surprised. "Who's your son?"

"You," he stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "You, Iggy, are my son."

"I don't think so! I met my real dad, he was a jerk, he tried to sell me to the media."

"Yeah, I saw that. Not the smartest move."

"Iggy, do you know who that is?" Total asked at Iggy's feet. Iggy looked down at him.

"No. why should I? He's a creep." Total hid his face in his paws for a moment, shaking his head.

"He's Hephaestus, Greek god of Fire and Forge," Gazzy supplied. Iggy looked over at him, his eyebrows raised. Blinking, he turned back to Hephaestus, his jaw dropped.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Iggy shook his head, trying to wrap his head around it. "You're a Greek god?" Hephaestus nodded, obviously amused by this. "And I'm your son?" Again, he nodded. "So that makes me a…"

"Demigod," Hephaestus said. He looked at Nudge and Gazzy and nodded at them. "Like those two are." Iggy glanced over at them and blinked in surprise when he saw transparent symbols hovering over their heads.

"I'm the son of Apollo," Gazzy said.

"And I'm the daughter of Aphrodite," Nudge said.

"You…you have things floating above your head. Does that happen often?" Iggy asked, wondering if he constantly missed that due to being blind. Both kids looked up and shrugged.

"Only once before," Gazzy said.

"It scared me when it first happened. I thought it was something the School did to us or something and I freaked out, wondering if it were like some sort of tracking device and then this GORGEOUS lady showed up and told me she was my mom. My mom! Can you believe it? My mom is a Greek goddess! It's so cool!"

"Your mom just happens to be my unfaithful wife," Hephaestus mumbled under his breath. He then cleared his throat and pat Iggy on the back. "Look up; you've got a symbol too." Iggy looked up and flinched a little, seeing Hephaestus's symbol floating above his head.

"And that means…what, exactly?" Iggy asked, looking at Hephaestus curiously.

"It means I claimed you as my son," he said.

XxXxXxX

"Where are we?" Iggy asked, looking around at the many lit up buildings. The flashing lights irritated his eyes, and it was much too crowded for his taste. The streets were filled with people, and every building seemed to be a hotel with flashing lights all over the place, as if it were some horrible Christmas tree. Iggy hated it immediately. Although, he was still in awe at the sight of things, and the fact that he could actually see things for a change. It was one thing to have stuff described to him by Gazzy or Fang, but it was completely different to see it for himself. Nudge stood next to him and grabbed his hand, squeezing it and bouncing with excitement. Gazzy, to his left, looked around in awe at everything. Iggy looked back at Hephaestus, who had told them to meet him on that particular street corner, where it was the least busy, outside a mechanic shop.

"Las Vegas," Hephaestus supplied, glancing around. "Now, I told you I would help, but this is all I can do. You've got that buzz in your noggin, just follow that," he said, tapping Iggy's head with his fist lightly. Iggy shot him a quizzical look, and then waited a moment. They all did, silently, searching for that buzzing feeling in the back of their heads.

"I don't feel anything," they said simultaneously, then shot nervous looks at each other before returning their gaze to the god behind them. Hephaestus's eyebrows raised up high, surprised.

"Well…" he mumbled. "That's a bit strange." Iggy shot him a "well, duh" look and glanced at the others. Nudge and Gazzy looked heartbroken, and he couldn't live with them looking like that.

"How do you know whoever we're going to find next is here?" Iggy asked. "What if they moved?"

"That's entirely possible," Hephaestus admitted. Iggy sighed and turned to the others.

"Want to look anyway?" he asked, hating the looks on their faces. Nudge and Gazzy glanced at each other and nodded.

The three of them spent a few hours wandering around Las Vegas. Hephaestus gave them some money to buy food, and they found a buffet. It was perfect for them. The three ate as much as they possibly could (including sneaking food for Total). They were pretty sure they freaked out the staff, going up for their tenth plate and piling it up with food so that it resembled the leaning tower of Pisa. Eventually they were kicked out, but by then, they were comfortably full and ready for a good nights rest.

And the hotel they found couldn't have been more perfect. "The Lotus Hotel and Casino".

**Yeah…please review.**


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